Dark Stars Rising
by Deirdre Skye
Summary: When their temple is destroyed, the Daughters must make new lives for themselves. How will they adapt to life in the greater world? And how will the greater world adapt to them?
1. Early Graduation

In the main cavern the Daughters of Aku used for training, Ashi looked up to her mother. "How much longer, Mother? When will be ready to start our mission?"

The statuesque woman looked down at her child, her voice filled with pride. "Very soon. On Night's Rise, you will undergo the final…" She stopped speaking as another woman ran in.

"We're under attack!" the woman yelled, then a deep thud made the notification redundant. "Quickly, High Priestess! Sound the alarm!" The High Priestess nodded sharply, and she, her children, their current trainer, the messenger and the brutish giant woman who served as enforcer dashed for the Hall of Worship, where the brute grabbed up the great hammer and struck the temple's great gong as quickly as she could, calling the faithful to drop everything and gather in the Hall of Worship, even the sentries.

It was only a matter of minutes before the entire congregation stood in the Hall, and the High Priestess turned to the sentries. "Report!"

"High Priestess, a force of people on vehicles bombards the mountain," one said. "The vehicles have four wheels and large guns, are about shoulder tall on us and perhaps three times that wide, they are painted to blend with the forest, and our arrows did not hurt them. We can say no more."

The High Priestess nodded once, sharply. "Everyone, to your posts! My Daughters, your final test is cancelled! This is now your final test, sortie and destroy these intruders, take whatever weapons you will!"

The seven nodded sharply, spun on their heels, and ran first for the armoury where they gathered and stowed bows, arrows, slings and bullets and their individual favoured weapons, then for the main entrance, running out through the carven mouth of Aku and across the bridge. Aji wondered briefly why the attackers hadn't bombarded the bridge; the scars on the mountainside were obvious. But it didn't matter now, what mattered was stopping this attack!

How dare they! Adi thought. How dare they attack the Temple of Aku! Heretics, blasphemers, minions of the Samurai! She loaded a bullet into her sling and snapped off a shot at nearly two hundred metres, starring a windshield. Ashi made a quick gesture, and she and the others did the same, peppering the windshields with cracks and stars. The vehicles spun, and as they withdrew, the Daughters followed, gaining ground slowly and continuing to hurl bullets, damaging and denting the retreating vehicles, then suddenly the vehicles gained speed, leaving them hopelessly behind.

Ashi spun on her heel, "Back to the temple!" and ran as fast as she could, her sisters at her heels. Then a mighty thud shook them to the bones, and they managed to pick up the pace slightly more. At the bridge, they stopped and stared, horrified. The bridge was gone, rubble at the bottom of the chasm, more rubble beyond the carven mouth, and they ran around to the tiny back gate. It was gone, nothing but rubble beyond.

"Mother…" Ami whimpered, and the girls fell to their knees, sobbing silently for a few moments before ingrained stoicism reasserted itself. They stood slowly, and Ashi wiped her tears away. The others did the same, and turned to face her.

Ashi's face, still tear-streaked and wide-eyed, hardened slightly. "Mother raised and trained us for one purpose: to kill the Samurai. That's still our purpose. But first, we need to find food, shelter, and water."

.oO()Oo.

A few moments' consultation with Aji and Ari, and Ashi led the group down the trail, such as it was, from the Temple's ruined entrance. They knew little of the greater world, but they did know that the sisters had things they didn't make themselves, and those had to come from somewhere. So they followed the path to where it reached a broader path, one covered with grey stone and white lines. As they walked the broad path, the early sun on their backs, they spread out, all looking in all directions as they travelled, until Avi called out, and pointed to a distant mass, just visible past the trees. They all looked over, and Ashi nodded. The girls cleared the path just in time for a strange object, a vehicle, to come around a bend and sweep through the space they'd been occupying. Ami shuddered at the close call.

Not too long after, they found the great structure Avi had glimpsed first. Tall, conical structures, long, low walls and corridors, steps flanked with carving of bizarre creatures that stood on their arms and legs, despite having no apparent hands or feet, just stumps. Their faces held ridiculously long noses that curled up near the ends, and tusks like their Lord Father's yet not like His. They had strange garments on their backs and foreheads, and some sort of structure as well, and not even Ari or Aji could make any sense of them. They quickly went inside, and found a chamber they liked, a round, windowless space faintly and indirectly illuminated from the entryway. Ari smiled faintly. "This will be a good place to stay while we seek the Samurai. If we can find a water source, and food, and materials for fire."

The others nodded, Aji already turning over possibilities in her head. "I think this was once a temple. The decorative work on the structures outside, like Aku's antlers. The strange animals, probably His minions. The general darkness. We need to find the Hall of Worship, and perform proper ceremonies to cleanse and consecrate it."

The rest nodded sharply. "We will," Ashi agreed, "once we find water and food. We'll spread out, and when one of us finds a source, that one will howl. If one of us finds the Hall of Worship, that one will sound the horn." And with that, the seven spread out quickly, the darkness no hindrance to the cave-raised girls.

The sun was sinking when Adi sounded and Avi howled. Adi considered a moment, then stopped sounding her trumpet-like call and ran for the howl, finding Avi in a chamber than seemed to have once been a kitchen. The pageboy-haired girl smiled brightly. "I found water! she exulted and worked the handle of a small pump. "And look here," she said after opening a little door in the wall. "Cups! Seven of them!" The cups were weird in the extreme, carved in the likeness of creatures inconceivable, fangs and eyes and manes and mouths like something from the deepest depth of nightmares, but that was secondary to the girls' growing thirst. Two cups each, they drank quickly, then horn-haired Ami looked through the kitchen's other door. "Look, sisters! Sleeping spaces!"

The others looked out, and smiled at the sight. Smooth, stone floors, narrow, raised bunks, and larger, higher platforms. How wonderful! The little biting creatures could not reach those. And a hearth! Oh, this just kept getting better. Sleeping spaces, water, a place for a fire, all they needed now was a place to worship. And with that thought, Ashi turned to Adi. "Where is the Hall?" she demanded, but not unkindly, and Adi quickly led them back to it.

The girls looked around. Dark stone, fire-holders, a large smooth floor, an idol with a fire bowl, it was so perfect it almost hurt. Then Ami began to sob. "No… it's all wrong…" and Adi's face fell as she truly examined the idol. How had she been so blind? This was not Aku, it was some weird, fat, flabby thing. Yes, it had large, bulging eyes, yes, it had fangs, but that was all it shared with Aku.

"It doesn't matter. We can carve a new idol," Adi said firmly. "We'll pray to that, not to the thing with the bowl. Perhaps when our mission is done, we can carve the fat thing into a proper likeness of Lord Aku."

Ami looked over to her. "Truly? We can… oh, Adi, that's wonderful!" she cried with a sudden smile.

Ari smiled as well. "If you say it's all right, that's enough for me."

Noticing the light was nearly gone, Ashi hurried to the nearest window, and looked out to the mountains. She exclaimed softly, then called her sisters to share the sight. "Mother told of the great light Sun, and of sunset as the time of prayer, but she never said it was so beautiful…" They watched, entranced, as the many hues slowly moved across the sky, and just before the last light went away, they prostrated themselves and prayed to their benevolent Father.

.oO()Oo.

Their prayers done, the girls left the temple in different directions. Mother had said that when they went on their mission, they would be given food and water for the duration, and so would not need to learn how to find it. But now, they did, and so each girl wandered the forest, hoping to find something, however small, to help fill their bellies.

Each in a different direction, the sisters sought, for what they did not know, following traces their keen eyes alone could find or searching among strange growths for foods they recognized. As the lesser light they remembered being called Moon finally rose, they individually chose to return, seeking the water room and setting their finds upon the counter. But even for them, the light was too faint to identify the possible food, and Avi went back out, then returned with an uprooted tree, taller than herself, which they stripped of its branches, laying most of it into the hearth in the sleeping room. Ashi dredged up her recollections of the annual fire-lighting ceremony, and working from that, improvised a fire-drill and plank from broken bits of trunk, and soon, the fire was going well enough to see by, and they examined their finds. Nuts, berries, mushrooms, and a strange carcass from a furry creature roughly half their size, with a head that seemed far too small, they went over all of them, leaning heavily on Ari's memories to determine which were good. On sticks carved from the tree's branches, they placed bits of carcass near the fire, and broke nuts and sampled berries and the shelf fungus Avi had gathered.

After a long interval, their bellies full at long last, the girls sat before the fire, knees drawn up, and Adi slid toward Ari, leaning softly against her. "Mother's not here. She won't be…" and she started to cry again, repeating "I'm sorry." Ari hesitantly put her arm around her sister, and one by one, the others all moved to huddle together before the fire.

"We'll toss the shells and the leaves and all that in the fire, throw out the rest, then tonight, we sleep before the fire," Ashi said. "We'll move two, no, three, of the high benches over to here," and they rose to do so, then with the high benches placed in an arc before the fire, laid themselves upon them, feet toward the fire, and slowly, without intent, drew toward each other, for the first time they could remember holding each other close, enjoying each other's warmth and touch.


	2. A Fair Exchange

The morning came, and the girls again went out to find food, or what they hoped was food. With better light, it was much easier, and they gathered in the water room to examine their finds: nuts, berries, shelf fungi and mushrooms, and they still had much of the meat from the evening. Aji looked it over. "I think we should keep the nuts for when we start travelling again. We'll eat the rest today," and Ashi approved the plan. So they cooked more meat, and ate it with their new finds, then shelled the nuts, vanishing the nut-meat into their shadows; the hulls went into the fire. Then they went out again to continue learning the area, then dashed back as their guts clenched up. Each in her own semi-screened niche outside the vast temple, they emptied themselves from both ends, unable to go more than few steps before having to bend over again.

As the sun lowered itself from sight, the girls prayed apart, unable to stand long enough to find each other, still wracked with spasms. Yet as the darkness grew, the spasms abated, and they were able to find the water room and rinse their mouths, and add some wood to the fire. They lay before the fire, shivering and baking throughout the night, curled up around themselves.

In the faint light of dawn, the girls finally managed to uncurl, then stood carefully, slowly, bracing themselves on the high benches. Never had they felt so utterly empty, so weak or frail. Ari finally spoke. "We can't do this. We need help, and… I'm sorry to say this, Ashi."

Ashi looked puzzled briefly, then her brows drew down in fury. "No! We are not turning to that traitorous wretch! Never! I will not allow it!"

"If we don't get help," Ami said, placing her hand softly on Ashi's arm, "we'll die out here. And death…"

"Is our failure," Ashi sighed heavily. "But… why her? There must be another way! Any other!" she insisted, brows still down and voice still high.

"We need help," Adi answered. "She's a terrible choice, if we can even find her, but we don't know anyone else to turn to."

Ashi barely managed to swallow her anger enough to speak without shouting. "How can you support this, Adi? You should want her dead most of all!"

Adi looked away. "I know. For her crimes, she should have died. But if she lives, and she has any faith at all, she and we are all that remain of our order. So she's the only one left we can turn to."

The others looked away, and murmured half-hearted support for the idea, and Ashi sighed at last. "This is still a terrible idea. But… it's the least terrible idea we have. At least that hard path goes the right way."

.oO()Oo.

Reluctantly, the seven made their way to the broad path, gathering nuts as they went, carefully keeping to the ones they recognized from the Temple. This time, strange sounds came from the broad path, whirring, almost recognizable noises. Then they came in sight of it through the trees, and quickly concealed themselves as best they could among the branches. Vehicles, more than they knew how to count! Big, small, with wheels and without. Ashi gestured, and they dropped to the forest floor, then began to walk along, paralleling the path while staying concealed as best they could, and gathering up whatever nuts they spotted.

As the sun rose, so too rose their hunger, and at it neared the centre of the sky, the girls paused at the edge of a stream, where they cracked nuts and filled the cups from the temple, sating at least partly their hunger and thirst, then they pushed on. Through the day, they kept the path to their right, staying far enough not to be readily seen, and crossing the smaller stone paths only when they were certain they were not being observed. As the sun went down, they paused long enough for their prayers, and thanks to their Lord Father for giving them the strength to survive their own folly and ignorance. Then they continued on, gathering what nuts they found as they went, not willing to stop so long as strength held out. Day by day, they followed the road, screened by trees and brush, finally forced by fatigue to rest, secreting themselves amidst the branches of a grove of trees, branches the tips of which hung down, and whose dark needles hid them from easy sight, and largely blocked the unfamiliar and uncomfortable light of the Sun from them.

On first watch, Ashi had to wonder if they were really doing what was right, seeking out that one, or merely what was needful? Was it sin? And if it was, was sin would it be? Heresy, blasphemy? It wasn't as if they were delaying their mission by choice; they had no idea how to even start looking, and the moment they found even a hint of the Samurai's location they'd be at him and on him like arrows.

Far below, strange creatures walked the ground, creatures with thick hair, creatures with antlers like their Lord Father's, ones with long faces, ones with short faces. By watching the shafts of sunlight move, she estimated when it was about half way to sunset, and woke Adi to take watch in her place. Ashi settled into a decently stable position, then allowed herself to sleep. To sleep, and to dream.

She stood with her sisters before the great bowl held in the idol's hands. In her hands, she held a piece of wood, and her sisters as well. The year's new fire was only a tiny handful of coals, barely visible, and they had been given the honour of giving it its first feeding. As one, they tossed the wood into the bowl, unerringly hitting the few coals, and watching it catch. The others came up one by one to add pieces, and soon enough the fire was rebuilt, and the girls used long tongs to take coals from the fire, and use them to relight the torches. It was the first time, and would not be the last, they had served as the light bringers. They returned the coals to the bowl, the tongs to their storage nook, and in a departure from reality, they withdrew to their chamber where they held each other close.

She woke at Adi's touch, and they woke the others, then all dropped to the ground for their sunset prayer before they resumed their reluctant journey, until after nearly a full day, they approached cleared land, bare land, with a structure near the centre. They weren't sure what to make of it: Relentlessly plain, with gleaming panels on its side. It didn't look like a place of worship, but it didn't look like any kind of defensive structure. And the time for prayer was fast approaching. Ashi glanced to Adi. "Lead the prayers. Then we'll scout the structure once full dark settles." Her sisters nodded, and they withdrew into the woods.

The darkness beyond the house was near absolute, and the shadow-clad girls all but invisible. They'd surrounded the house, and now crept slowly toward it, crouched low as they could be, wondering silently at its purpose. Aji saw a person at a clear panel, one that glowed from within, and froze in place until the person was gone.

They regathered at a certain tree, to discuss their findings. "I'm fairly sure it's just a dwelling," Aji said. "It's too small to house a reasonable numbers of fighters, and it has no images of Aku so it can't be a temple." The others looked at her, and each other, then back at her.

"A… dwelling? Nothing else?" Ashi asked. "How sure are you of that?"

She shrugged slightly. "It's a strange thought, I know, but Mother did tell us the greater world might be very strange."

Strange didn't even start to cover it. Where did the people go to praise Aku? Where did they go to train for the Last Battle? And where were their food trees and bushes? Mother had kept them strictly within the Temple, but she'd finally yielded to Ashi's endless questioning of where their food came from when her sisters added their voice to the chorus, probably the only time she hadn't been beaten for irrelevant questions.

"We'll go there. We could sneak past, but we have to meet the people of the greater world sooner or later. Better to meet a few first, I think," Ashi said, and set off toward the entrance with the ornate covering over it.

.oO()Oo.

The woman of the house kept glancing out the window. She was sure she'd caught a glimpse of someone, even if her husband didn't believe her. Just as the old man rose from his chair to light the fire, a light tap came at the door, and he went to open it. Outside, over the covered veranda, seven disembodied heads floated in the darkness, and he stood frozen in terror until his eyes adjusted to looking out into the darkness of the night. Then he finally saw the heads were indeed attached to bodies, very shapely bodies indeed, sheathed in some dark material. The girls bowed to him, then the one with the peaked hair spoke.

"May we enter? I pledge you we mean no harm to you or yours," the strange girl said.

The wife looked over. "Who is it?"

He answered without turning to face her. "Seven girls. Sisters, they must be, all looking alike." He tone was soft, almost stunned.

"Well, don't be a ninny, let them in! It's going to be a wet night and cold."

He shook himself a bit, then stepped clear. "Please, come in. I'll light the fire for ye," and he cleared the door, kneeling at what they presumed to be the hearth.

As she watched them file in, the wife saw why her husband had been slow to act; it wasn't just their dark clothes, there was something about their movements. something she couldn't name but still felt, that seemed somehow off. As they sat upon the floor, feet tucked under themselves, it came to her: it was in their posture, an air of tension, a readiness she'd seen sometimes in soldiers, or in… oh, no. Poor children. No mother could survive birthing seven, their father must have taken it out on them until they'd run away. She smiled to them, very gently. "Ye're welcome te stay the night. Would ye like summat te eat?" They looked to each other and spoke in a strange language with a lot of vowels, then the one with her hair parted in the centre answered in the affirmative.

As the fire rose, the sisters looked around at the dwelling, and its inhabitants. In the familiar light, they took in strange objects for sitting before the fire, a thick sleeping mat between the objects and the hearth, a mat with oddly curved ends. Behind them, a raised sleeping platform, with curious vertical extensions at each end and against the wall beyond the fireplace, a narrow set of oddly proportioned steps leading to something above, something they couldn't even guess at.

The woman was tall, slim, as they'd expected, and a bit stooped, unlike the women of the Temple, but there was something strange about her skin, its texture unlike that of their faces. The other, they guessed to be a man. They knew the Samurai to be a man, and he was built rather like the images they'd been shown of the Samurai. He too had that strange texture to his skin. and both wore weird, loose clothing, the woman a covering that reached from neck to ankles, and shoulder to wrist, the man a covering above his waist patterned in crossing stripes and a second below his waist in a solid colour.

When they turned to see the woman, they saw her busy at something they at least vaguely recognized, having occasionally entered into the Temple's kitchen (and been promptly chased out), though what she was working with looked like no food they'd known. After a time, she returned, setting the tray she bore on the floor before them.

The guests looked at the tray in utter confusion. Hadn't they seen sandwiches before? How had their brute of a father raised them? She sighed. "Yes, thet's food. Ye just pick up a piece, and eat. They's sandwiches, an' good. They's clean wateh i' the jug. Ye'll have to share…" and her eyes went wide as the girl reached behind themselves and produced weirdly carved cups. "Neveh min'," she finished weakly. The peaked hair girl reached first for a piece of sandwich, and after biting off a small bit turned to face her, eyes wide.

"What is this white stuff? It's amazing!" Ashi demanded as the strange texture and novel taste spread through her mouth. The meat, she recognized as pork, but there was a sharp taste as well, not salt or anything like salt.

The woman gaped. How… what kind of monster had raised them? "'Tis bread, mos' common food i' th' worl'" she told them. An' tha's pohk, wit a li'l sal' an' peppah."

Bread. Pepper. She open the sandwich and looked in. "And the yellow?"

"Ah… butteh. Ain't ye never had butteh a'fore?" she asked. Bread, butter, pepper, what had these girls been raised on? Their trick with the cups was too weird to grasp, but food was something she understood.

Ashi shook her head. "Never. Is it common?"

"Aye," the woman finally said. "Almos' common as bread. Cor, wha'd ye grow up on?"

The one with her hair curved into what looked like a pair of horns answered. "Fresh fruit or fruit leather, vegetables, meat fresh or dried depending on the time of year, nuts. What else?"

The old man finally rose, and walked over to them. "Nothin' made from grain? No milk, no cheese or eggs?" Ashi's questioning of what they were answered that. "Did you grow up in the forest?" he asked, and his wife's opinions of the poor girls' father dropped even further. He'd raised them like savages!

"No," said the girl with her bangs cut into an arc that swept up at each side. "We grew up in a temple."

The old woman smiled. That changed things a great deal. "Did the sisters raise you well?" she asked.

Aki answered that. "Our mother, our trainers, the sisters, they did their best to train us to be the mightiest fighters we could be, and now, we seek the Samurai." And both of their hosts smiled brightly.

"That's wonderful," the old man said. "Ye're welcome to stay the night, I don't think you want to travel in the rain that's comin'."

Ashi smiled back to him. "Thank you. We'll leave the mat and the bench to you; we're fine with just the floor."

The two looked to each other, then to the girls. "Nonsense," the old man said. "You don't need to sleep on the floor. Come upstairs with us, we'll show you where you can sleep."

By the light of a candle, they followed the elderly couple upstairs, and were led to a door behind which lay a room roughly half again the size of a sister's sleeping area, with an enormous raised sleeping platform. The girls swarmed onto it, and found that with some creativity and closeness, they could all fit onto it. The old woman told them that they could put the cover of the "bed" over themselves if they wished. They tried it, and squealed in delight at the warm softness settling over them. As they did that, the old man started a fire in the small fireplace. He closed the spark screen, and looked to them in the rising light. "That should be enough to keep you warm tonight. Sleep well." They smiled, and returned his wish in chorus.

In their own room, after they'd changed and gone to bed, the couple spoke softly. "What are those girls, d'ye think?" he asked her. Beneath the covers drawn up to their chins, the old couple's hands touched, hers upon his as they lay on their backs.

"Dunno. Thought they'd had a ro'en fatheh, but… whate'h they are, they'h weird. I gotta wonder, what kind a' temple they'h from, the way they dress. Looks more'n any'thin' like paint. An' don' tell me y'ain't noticed, ye ol' goat!"

He laughed out a soft bleat. "Ne'er too old to look. An' I remember a time ye wore such things."

She smiled, and it could be heard in her voice. "Oh, aye. But still… and that trick with the cups. There's somethin' real strange 'bout 'em."

"Well, there's lots of strange things in the world. If it doesn't hurt ye, don't mess with it."

In their own room, the girls had heard every word, thanks to their carefully trained senses. To ears that could catch the sound of an arrow in flight, the voices in the near silence had been perfectly clear, and they spoke softly to each other in the private language they'd created so long ago.

"We should do something to help them tomorrow," Ashi said. "And if they have questions, we'll answer them." The others agreed, then Aji spoke.

"We knew the greater world would be different, but we didn't realize that we'd seem as weird as to its people as they seem to us. We have a lot to learn, and… I hate to say this. I really hate to say this."

"But she's our best choice," Ari said when Aji couldn't bring herself to continue. "If she's still alive."

"Tomorrow," Ami said, as a strange sound began to come from the roof. "Is that the 'rain' they were talking about?"

"Must be," Aki said, then the girls readjusted themselves for sleep. Seven girls in a double bed.


	3. Men and Beasts

Came the morn, the girls slowly and carefully disentangled themselves from the cover and each other. Ami stretched luxuriantly, face wreathed in smiles. "That was wonderful! I hope we can do that again soon." She had no idea why she felt so good, no inkling of the simple comfort that came from knowing oneself safe from inclement conditions. But she still felt it, and from their expressions, so did her sisters, if not as strongly. The girls filed downstairs, following the scent of cooking. In the main room, the woman was busy cooking, and though they kept a respectful distance, the foods looked not at all familiar. There was more of that bread, and brown cylinders, and brown-and-white strips, and something liquid being poured into a cooking utensil they recognized but couldn't name, shallow, broad, and with a long handle. The man directed them to sit on the floor, since there were clearly nothing near enough seating for all of them, and not long after, the woman brought out a large platter and a few plates.

"Hope ye don' mind sharin' plates," she said. "Don' have enough of anythin' fer nine at once." Then she started to take them through the foods: sausages, hash brown potatoes, toast, bacon, pancakes, and scrambled eggs, and a drink they'd not known before, apple juice.

The girl thanked her for the meal, and enjoyed the new dishes greatly, though they approached the syrup and honey with considerable trepidation, given their less than appetizing appearance and consistency, but ended by enjoying all the foods, even licking their fingers clean. Once they rose, and put the dishes in the sink at instructed, they bowed to their hosts. "We wish to thank you for your kindness," Ashi said. "If you will show us pictures of animals that are good to eat, and of their tracks, we can hunt some down. And if you can tell us which trees are not needed, we can bring some wood for your fires."

The two looked to each other, then their guests. "Ye don' need ta do that," the man said. "But if ye wanna, sure." He went upstairs, then came back, paging though a book to show them pictures. The girls examined them, twittered at each other, then departed. Not long after noon, they returned, bearing their catches, each girl a different animal, large or small. Deer, squirrel, rabbit, petty tyrant, others, a staggering bounty to the elderly couple. Then they looked at the book of trees, and listened to the old man, and departed again. They returned not long before sunset, each bearing or dragging a great log, then cut and split them, filling the woodshed just in time to go to where they could see the sunset and perform their devotions.

"Ye wanna stay anotheh night?" the man asked. "Ye've more'n earned it." They accepted, and spent another night cuddled together, learning at long last the simple comforts of touch, and warmth, and softness.

.oO()Oo.

Another breakfast, and afterward, the woman and man sat on the sleeping platform. "We been wond'rin'. What brung ye from yer temple? If ye wanna say."

Ashi shrugged. "We need to find a woman once part of our temple. We know that she went south, but that's all."

The couple looked to each other, then the girls. "Do ye know how t'live in a city?"

They shook their heads, and the rest of the day was taken up by an extremely basic primer on how to not die in the big city. They agreed to stay one more night, then depart the next day.

.oO()Oo.

Their departure, the first time they'd ridden anything, was both frightening and thrilling, all of them crouched low in the bed of the couple's truck, covering in minutes distances that would have taken hours on foot. The old man directed his truck between two white lines, then stopped and got out.

"This's yer stop. I got business here, then it's back to the farm. City's that way," he said, and pointed down the road. "Take the first road you see that curves off the big one. Follow it, you'll be on the outskirts by night. Good luck to you." They thanked him, and started walking.

.oO()Oo.

The trip was long, but it was clear where the city started: one side of the crossing strips of stone had many buildings, the other had few. As the sun set, they went out into a field to perform their devotions, then resumed their walk, trying not to wince at the sheer volume of sounds and smells and sights, so different from their Temple, so strange and confusing. Remembering their instructions, they went a good ways into the city before they sought out a small place, the kind they'd been told was called a store, and Aki walked up to the man behind the counter. "Where can we go to find shelter?" she asked once he'd greeted her. "Right now, we have no money, but many skills."

He considered the question a few moments. "Can you fight?"

Aki nodded. "Very well," and he smiled.

"Go for the dome. It's easy to find, just follow any main street. If you need to know where it is, ask. You know how it works?"

She nodded. "We've heard of it. Thank you," she said, and she gathered up her sisters, ten they departed.

As they'd done in the store, they stared at everything. It was all so strange, and so much writing! Writing everywhere, it seemed! There must be many very devout worshippers to merit such a vast amount. Several times, they had to go into shops and ask directions, the lights of the street and stores so strange. But they finally made their way to the dome, and after being directed to the door for fighters, they stepped into a relatively quiet space, then into a second space after another door. There, a creature half again their height and about twice their width, with six eyes and no apparent head, raised a flat thing and poked at it, asking their names as individuals and a group, and their combat specialities, at which they produced their weapons, slowly so as not to seem threatening.

The six-eyed being noted this down, and directed them to one of the smaller fighting pits. The pit master, a large man, looked them over. "So. You're good?"

"The best we can be. Our mother trained us to match the Samurai," Ashi told the man, who seemed to find that amusing.

"We'll see. You'll start out fighting the Force Squad. They're not much, to be honest, but it's really just a rating match. Then you'll get a real fight. Win, you get a place for the night, breakfast tomorrow, and a starting stake. Clear?"

Ashi looked to the others, and Aji nodded. "Clear," she answered, and the seven entered the relatively small fighting area. Lightly padded floor and walls, blue with white stripes, round and without cover, bright lighting. Ashi spoke a single syllable and the girls spread wide, weapons out, and their opponents filed in, four people, two men and two women, about their own age. Each had a shield and a short club, and as the two groups circled each other while the announcer introduced both sides, the girls twittered to each other, then two streaks of darkness knocked the four flat.

The announcer said nothing at all for a moment. "Fans, I never expected this. The Daughters of Aku have just set a new Battledome record for shortest ranking match ever! Let's have a cheer for our new championship contenders!" The crowd cheered as instructed. "And for the Force Squad, I ask you to give them your sympathy for this devastation. I assure you, the management won't hold this against them." The crowd laughed, but not unkindly. The Squad, they knew, was composed of decent fighters, this wasn't anyone's fault.

Not knowing what else to do, the girls treated the Squad like bested sparring partners, and helped them to stand. Both teams bowed to the audience, then departed. The Daughters were quickly escorted to a much larger, more complex fighting area, one with simulated ruins and jungle vegetation. "OK. I won't tell you much because you learning about your opponent is a big part of the show," said the fight director. "But I'll tell you this: your opponent's not alive, just a high quality robot. If you do something that would kill a living thing, it'll shut down and you'll win. But it's not programmed not to kill you, so don't hold back."

They nodded to that, though they didn't much understand. They did understand the important part: they needed to kill their opponent. Temple law on killing was clear: kill when you must, for sake of yourself and those in your care, kill quickly and cleanly, never kill for pleasure. This battle was kill or die.

The sisters spread themselves around the arena, taking positions atop the ruins, screening themselves as best they could while they watched the the other entrance. Ashi produced her bow, and Avi hers, the others theirs slings. The metal doors slid aside, and from the opening stalked a huge beast, powerfully muscled, with a row of three heads upon its massively broad shoulders above a row of four heads, each on a short, powerful neck. From its heads to its long tail, it was covered in thick, dappled yellow and brown fur over powerful muscles, and it stood twice their height at the peak of its back, and nearly that wide at its immense shoulders, and it roared with all its throats. Atop the ruins, the girls shuddered slightly, but let fly with arrows and bullets, leaping away to new positions before they struck again. They could easily keep away from the creature, and so victory was sure to be theirs.

Until the creature opened its mouths and breathed fire at the girls, who barely managed to reach cover. Ashi shouted to the others, and on her orders, Aki and Aji leapt toward the creature with her, the others focussing their fire on its heads, kept it focussed on them for the few moments their sisters needed to land on the broad necks. The beast answered by bucking and thrashing, and the girls clung with all the strength of their muscles and the adhesion of their darksuits, taking cuts at its skin as they could, their short weapons best suited to this task: Ashi with the kama of her kusarigama, Aki's katana, Aji's butterfly swords. Here, the beast could not claw or bite or flame them, and they trusted their sisters to stay away from its fire and to keeps its focus on them as more immediate threats.

Aji cut a gash its skin in a long draw cut, then gasped. "Ashi! It's made of metal!" She tore away a patch of the skin, and despite its thrashing, drove her blade into its neck, pulled it out, and drove in again, not quite in the same spot, and again, and the head went limp. Their leader responded by calling out a new order; she sprang from her perch, and Avi leapt up to it, barely twisting enough to dodge a fire blast. While the others did their best to keep its heads busy, Avi pulled at the edges of Aki's cut, opening it more, then braced herself face down on both edges, and pushed with hands and feet, unaware of the lewd display she was making. Slowly, slowly, the rent opened, and as Ashi and Aki disabled the other upper heads, she continued to push while their sisters continued to attack the remaining head, though their bullets and arrows did little more than irritate. But Avi had an idea: she produced a kunai, and struck a carefully controlled blow at the pipe she'd found inside the neck, and yelled at her sisters to spring clear.

At her words, all seven leapt and sprang and ran as far from the beast as they could, while the fire Avi had sparked in the fuel line slowly worked its way down to the main tank. The explosion they feared never came, but the creature thrashed, roared, flamed, as they frantically kept away from its death throes while its internal temperature steadily rose, forcing it to shut down. The crowd, after a moment of stunned silence, cheered, and the girls slowly turned around and around, then walked out of the arena.

.oO()Oo.

In one of the more ornate offices, two men watched the footage of the girls' fight. "We can't keep them on this. They're too good," said the man in the fine suit.

The man in the oversized suit groaned. "Boss, we have to keep 'em! They're gorgeous, they're identical, they'll draw crowds like nobody else!"

"Not on the fighting circuit. They're just too good, there's no tension, no way to build an audience. But I've got some ideas."

.oO()Oo.

The girls were shown to their promised place, a room with eight beds, where they pulled the pillows and sheets together to make a nest of sorts, where they piled together after performing their belated devotions, lengthening them to include an apology, and a prayer for forgiveness of their tardiness.


	4. Getting Settled

The next day, after another weird meal, the girls collected their stake, but it came in the form of a piece of paper they didn't recognize. Ashi looked to the slender, grey-suited functionary who gave it to her. "What do we do with this?"

That worthy, with his slicked-back grey hair and pinched expression, groaned in a slightly nasal manner. "You take it to a bank, put it in your account."

"We don't have one," she said. "We've only been in the city a day, and we grew up in an isolated temple."

He groaned again. The bosses said to play nice and be helpful, and that was looking to be a full time job.

.oO()Oo.

The bank teller was wondering yet again why she'd been saddled with this. She was the newest staffer, she had no idea how to set up a bank account from zero, that was a manager's job! She could feel tears welling up in all three of her eyes, partly from gloomy certainty she was going to get fired unless she did some very major grovelling. At least. But she'd been given this job, and she was going to get it done as best she could. "So, we have… a joint savings account. I have your names, and your current address. You each need your own sticks, right?" The supercilious fellow who seemed to be their handler confirmed that, and she went to work on the terminal, fighting her way through the extremely unclear options, and having to restart every time she made a mistake, with the shadow-covered girls looking increasingly restive. And giving her a demonstration of what looked far too much like martial arts forms.

The girls had been schooled to patience. Not the patience of minutes, but of hours, even days. They had learned to keep themselves alert with simple physical actions, moves drilled in to the point they took no attention at all. This entire procedure had been both confusing and boring, so to keep themselves alert, they'd fallen back on that training, slowly entering into a meditative state of relaxed awareness. They did wonder why the three-eyed girl was starting to look scared. Granted, they had little experience with facial expressions beyond each others', but fear was something they'd seen many and many a time, and they speculated in their own language.

Oh powers of light, whatever you may be, please stop the crazy girls' gibbering, the teller prayed within herself. Still, she pressed on, checking and double checking and triple checking every single key stroke. The worst part was the ID for the sticks. Facial recognition was out, they didn't have fingerprints, DNA was out because of those… wait. Wait just a second. That was it! Maybe. "Ladies, would you please pick these up?" she asked, and passed them their sticks, each the size of a large pen. She sent a command to the sticks, and there it was: a distinctive chemical signature. Whatever those shadows were, they had molecular structures, and they varied from girl to girl. A second command, and the sticks beeped. Her elation almost overcame her fears, and after they made their first deposit (that was a lot of money…) and filed out of the bank, she withdrew to the break room and collapsed into a sobbing, gibbering wreck.

.oO()Oo.

Outside, the girls looked to their guide. "Where can we get some food?" Ashi asked. "Anything will do."

Well, at least they had that much sense, the man thought. "Follow me," and he led them to a large building. "This is a shopping mall, a place to buy all sorts of things, including ready-made meals. But I should warn you, it's quite expensive. You'll do better buying basic ingredients and cooking them yourselves," and he opened a large door for them.

They filed in, then pressed themselves against the wall as they looked about, wide-eyed at the bizarre sights of the "mall." The people, the places, the objects, it was just a swirl and a blur of incomprehensible things. They couldn't grasp it at all, beyond the most obvious "path" and "chamber" levels, and for the first time, clung to each other in fear and bafflement, breathing growing shallow and fast. It was too much, and they sprang up, column to column to skylight across which they scurried to be close again, clinging face-down by their feet and fingers while they did their best to calm themselves, searching for a quiet-looking area. There! To what was now their left, what looked like a refuge! They again sprang, and took refuge in the narrow, quiet corridor, slowly calming themselves.

"Let us pray," Adi said, and the seven knelt, hands on the floor, then prayed fervently, desperately, for strength of spirit. They had no altar, no offerings, no idol, not so much a single patch of shadow to which to direct their prayers, but they had to hope they would be heard despite the lack. Eventually, they stood, and Ashi looked to the others. "We must face this. The greater world is strange beyond all imagining, but we have no Temple to… to…" and she broke down sobbing, and the sisters fell against each other, sobbing as well.

Their handler caught up to them in time to see them sobbing against each other, but chose not to disturb them; who knew how they might react? When they finally broke apart, they turned to him. "We still need a meal," Ashi said. "I think we can cope with this place, for a little longer anyway."

.oO()Oo.

The meal had been enlightening; their ignorance seemed unfathomable, and as they'd said, they weren't picky eaters. Though they did have very good table manners, to his pleasant surprise. Granted, they were ignorant of utensils, but there was enough finger food to make that not a concern. "You girls absolutely need to learn to read," he said in his usual, slightly condescending way, after they'd discarded their trash. "Fortunately, the local library has frequent classes, and they'll be starting soon. Follow me," and he led them out to the street.

.oO()Oo.

The girls finally managed to relax once they entered the library (a strange name for a temple, they thought). It was still strange, very, very strange, but it was filled with things they understood or had come to understand: chairs, benches, tables, books on shelves. In a side room, the girls sat on the floor; the other students, about a dozen, used the chairs, but the girls just couldn't sit that way comfortably, it was just so weird! The priest drew the signs, and explained their meanings, and took them through examples. Avi, the one with her hair in a pageboy cut, frowned in intense concentration, and the others focused their attentions as well. Yet the moment they grasped the concepts, it all came together quickly, and by the time the sun was going down, Aji had mastered the secrets of the god-signs and the rest were well on their way. They hurried to a suitably oriented window on the second floor, and added to their normal devotions a thanks to their Lord Father for His generous gift of insight.

Their guide was already there when they turned around. "It's time to go back. You and the manager need to talk," he said in his dry, oddly accented voice. Lacking better options at the moment, they chose to follow him back

.oO()Oo.

In the office, the girls faced the manager. "You're off the fighting circuit, you're too good."

They shared a baffled expression, and Ashi replied. "How can we be too good? That doesn't make sense."

The manager sighed heavily. "This business runs on excitement, tension, uncertainty. There's no tension or uncertainty with you girls, you'll trounce anyone we send against you. So I'm putting you on a different circuit. What do you know how to do? Everything, no matter how obvious you might think it is."

Ashi thought carefully about his question, ignoring the nonsense that preceded it.. "We know how to fight unarmed, or armed with a variety of weapons, up close or at range. We know how to dodge, how to block, how to run, leap, flip, and roll. We can swim and dive, and we know how to dance the sacred dances and to sing the songs of praise." She watched his expression shift to something she'd not seen before, then when she was done, he spoke again.

"I know just the thing. You're going to be dancers and athletes, we'll call you the Dark Stars." He looked to their guide. "Take them to the monkey bars." That worthy gathered them up by eye, and they went along with him. Ashi's curiosity was engaged, and the others saw no reason not to go along.

The monkey bars turned out to be rods of a strange substance, clear when not glowing with colour, somehow hanging in midair, no two at the same height or the same angle. "This is the set for a popular challenge. The rules are simple: each team has a trophy. The competitors leap from bar to bar, and when both have gained their trophies, the game ends. The highest score wins: from a start of thirty points each, one point is lost for touching a bar that is not lit, thirty more are gained for gaining the trophy, and one point is lost for every second by which your opponent beats you to the prize. It is not permitted to attack members of the other team." He removed a flat device from his jacket, touched it several times quickly, then returned it. "You'll get fifteen minutes of practice."

And strange sounds and the beat of a drum began to sound. "Oo, ee, oo, aa-aa," they heard as the bars began to light and darken. The sisters sprang for the nearest lit bar, then realized that was a bad idea, and as one dropped. "Aki!" Ashi said, "you lead. Then me, Ari, Ami, Adi, Aji, and Avi in that order. We each go after a bar no-one else is on or leaping to." The others nodded, and again sprang as the bars lit. The grey-suited man almost seemed to be smiling.

.oO()Oo.

After their practice, the girls had a few minutes to catch their breath; they didn't require the rest, but did appreciate it, and took the opportunity to drink a little. They took up a starting formation of three before and four behind, and watched their opponents file in. The other women were taller than they but shorter than the elder Daughters, far less curvaceous than either, and dressed, like them, in tight sheaths, but unlike them, their sheaths were green-blue and looked metallic, with bits of decorative fringe at the wrists and ankles and neck. The new arrivals waved to them, and Aki walked up to them, and waved back. The apparent leader approached her, and with a smile, held out her hand. Aki did the same, and the girl grasped her hand, not too firmly. Aki returned the action, and the girl smiled.

"Dark Stars. Cool name, we're the Leaping Waves. Let's both do our best and have fun. Talk to you later, 'k?" And she and Aki went back to their teams.

Aki looked around to the others. "Did that make no sense at all?" she asked, and the others nodded. Wishing an opponent well? How bizarre could the greater world be? It didn't matter. They had a battle to win, even if it was a weird battle, and when the music began, they moved, black-clad arrows leaping from bar to bar, watching their opponents doing the same, reaching their trophy only barely before the Daughters. Chimes rang, the two teams dropped to the ground, and the announcer broke down the scores, with the Daughters losing 57 to 21. The girls hung their head in shame, and their faces tightened in fear as the winners approached them. Then the Leaping Waves put their arms around the Daughters' shoulders, and held them close for a few heartbeats.

"Good match," the leader of the Waves said. "Looking forward to the next one," and she smiled before both teams withdrew. The Daughters followed the the Waves, and found their way to the canteen, where they purchased the least strange of the foods on offer. They ate in stony silence, then their handler took them back to their room.

"Tomorrow, you need to find an apartment of your own," he said. "And that's part of my job," he didn't quite sneer. "We begin after breakfast," he said, and departed.

In the darkness, the girls spoke softly. "I think we're missing something basic," Ashi said. "Something very, very important about that kind of fighting. Why were the Leaping Waves so… I don't even know what to call what they were. They almost acted like we'd been raised together." The others murmured agreement, and they moved on to analysing why they'd failed. In time, they satisfied themselves, and went to sleep, the faint sounds through the door reminiscent of the chanting of the Temple.

.oO()Oo.

Their breakfast was another weird meal, mostly grain based, but soon their guide was taking them to see various apartments. That worthy had drawn up a simple strategy: show them the worst apartments first, so as to lower their expectations and bring them to accept a cheaper place than they might otherwise demand. Their first stop was in a district not far from the Dome, but in his view that was its only virtue. Run-down, covered in graffiti, the few marginally livable places not fit for even a junkie long term. The girls looked about with evident trepidation, drawing together, weapons out, and he was pleased. "This is our first stop," he informed them as he led them down a staircase to a basement apartment, a large but otherwise thoroughly miserable rat-hole in concrete, with a pathetically tiny bathroom and a kitchenette not much larger, the cabinet and interior doors long gone to who knew what. Some eccentric former occupant had painted the concrete black, and the two small windows red; nobody would want to live here, not if they were anything remotely approaching sensible. The girl spread out, and spoke softly to each other in that odd language of theirs.

The Daughters of Aku examined the offered living space. Black stone, red light, cooking area, niches for storage, hygiene facilities simple but sufficient. "We can put the altar over there," Adi said and pointed to the long wall opposite the door.

"If we have to make a hasty retreat, we have the windows, they should be big enough to slide through," Ashi agreed.

"And we can learn cooking on those things," Aji said, indicating the kitchen fixtures.

"There's plenty of space to practice and spar," Aki agreed.

The girl turned to their guide, their bright expressions taking him completely aback. "It's perfect!" they said in chorus in the public language, as they thought of it, and his face fell. He would have to come to this area now. What was wrong with these girls, that this place was so perfect?

"Very well. You'll need a few things: a refrigerator to hold your food, some towels and soap and toiletries, cooking implements, beds and beddings. Let's get to it," he said, and let them back to the van. "Oh, and you'll need to sign an agreement with the owner of the building, one that says what he's required to provide and what you're obligated to give in return." Ashi nodded to that, and he called the landlord, saying he'd found a tenant for the basement. A few moments later, an agreement came up on the screen, which Aji read as carefully as she could before signing it carefully; her sisters signed it afterward. Then he drove off, taking toward a shopping centre until Aji said, "The library first. We'll want to read about cooking before we actually buy things." He sighed, and did as asked.

At the library, the girls asked the attendant priestess where to find the books on cooking, and after careful searching, Avi found just what they needed: Cooking From Nothing. It detailed everything they needed, and needed to know, to cook. Aki took the book, and went to the attendant priestess, before whom she bowed deeply. "I, we, would like to ask a great favour of you: is there any way we could take this with us for a few days?"

The librarian looked at the strange girls, baffled at the question. "Of course," she answered slowly. "Let me help you get a library card." And she slowly and carefully took them through the process. By the end of it, they were staring at their new cards as if they were made of pure gold.

Ari checked out the book, and vanished it behind herself, then they returned to their waiting guide. "Take us where we can buy these things," she said to the man, showing him the pages with the pictures of the objects they would need.

He looked them over, and drove back to the mall. It was oddly satisfying watch them tremble, then visibly steel themselves for the passage. He was kind enough to take them to the right department of the anchor store before cutting them loose, though continuing to watch. To his near-complete lack of surprise, they went to the knives and cutlery first, warbling at each other intently as they examined each blade, then set each aside. Finally, the peak-haired girl who seemed to be their leader spoke to him.

"None of their knives are truly good. They're made from poor steel at best, won't take a decent edge or hold a decent edge, the handles on many are too short, and their balance is terrible. Show us where to find good knives." Her face was hard, her eyes cold in a way he'd not seen before from them, and he nodded to her.

"I know a much better store for knives, every sort," he admitted. Oh dear, these girls certainly knew their knives. If they were as demanding will all their shopping, this could take the entire rest of the day!

It did, and by the end of it, the poor fellow was worn to a frazzle. They might not have known much about kitchen utensils, but that peak-haired girl and her sister with the curiously rounded bangs certainly knew a lot about asking questions. And some of their choices! That frying pan must have weighed a good two and half kilos, yet the tiny girls could sling it about like a fly swatter. Then the one with the curved bangs spoke up. "We need a refrigerator. A large one," she said, and after a trip to an appliance store, a good one, he was treated to the sight of two little girls carrying with ease a refrigerator than weighed more that both them combined! At the least the trip to a wholesale grocer was straightforward, even if the space in the van was non-existent afterward. But they unloaded quickly, stowed everything where it needed to be, and were back in the van before the locals worked up the nerve to do anything beyond taunt and intimidate him. He started the van again, and took them back to the Dome.

The girls lost again at the monkey bars, but less badly, only 54 to 25, then went to the practice areas to maintain their combat skills in the only way they could: sparring against each other. Then the athletic equipment, the pool, and to their utter delight, they found an area set aside for exactly the sort of combat at which they most excelled: stealth and ambush. Again, they had to practice against each other due to lack of other suitable opponents, but such was the way of things.

.oO()Oo.

Back in their apartment, stretched out and piled up on the concrete and each other, Adi spoke into the slightly red-tinted darkness. "Is this really our best choice? Aren't we just wasting time? We should be hunting the Samurai, and looking for her."

"Yes," Ashi said. "We should. But the Samurai travels in places like this, and finding him will take time, and so we need to learn how to survive in these places. Tomorrow, we start the hunt for him. And for her."


	5. Payment in (Un)Kind

The next morning, Ari took up their borrowed book, and after reading the relevant parts very carefully and thoroughly, prepared, with great care, their first meal in their new home, however temporary a home it might be. It was a very, very simple thing, just sausages and slices of fruit crisped with quick immersion in the grease, with water of course. That was a true delight, to have water just by moving a lever. The cooking was edible, even flavoursome, and that was all they needed to count it delightful. The washing up was also simple and quick, and soon they filed out.

"We'll need to spread out," Ashi said. "When the sun starts to lower, we'll each head to the learning temple." And they nodded to that, then split up.

Ami managed two blocks before she had to find a place to sit and gather herself. It tore at her in a way she'd never imagined, being separated from her sisters, not having them within earshot at the worst, and so she ducked down a narrow space between two buildings, then scuttled up the wall to the roof, where, after looking around carefully, she sat down and keened in pain, rocking slightly back and forth. Bad enough to show weakness; to be seen showing weakness? Intolerable. Eventually, she managed to gather herself, and though her heart still ached, she returned to the street, and began to wander, though for what she looked, she had no idea.

Aji turned down a little lane, barely wider than her shoulders, alert for ambush as she went along. The opening ahead would be a perfect spot, and she reached into the darkness at her thigh, touching the handles of two kunai as she stepped out, glancing in all directions. She saw only ordinary people, and little shops, and stepped into one with bright cloth hanging in the window. She stared as she drifted through the little space, little but crowded with incense burners, statuary, hangings, an amazing place. Oh, how Adi would love to see this, she thought. An entire store dedicated to temple furnishings. She looked slowly about, and wandered, and in a little nook, found what she truly sought: an idol of Aku. It was small, only as tall as her forearm was long, and made of black metal. But it stood on a black stand that put it at the right height for worship. So perfect it hurt. She had to buy it, had to put it in place in their apartment. Her sisters would certainly approve.

Along a street near what looked like a palace, Adi turned into a building called a "museum." She didn't know what the word meant, but Ashi wasn't the only one with curiosity. Within it, she found many floors and many galleries, places and people from all over the world, a dizzying array. Finally, she found her way into a gallery filled with scenes of torment, Aku's stern justice against those who transgressed His wise and just laws. The fires, the tools and furnishings, made her both shudder in fear and smile in satisfaction. It was good to see that people both honoured His law and feared to break it.

Ashi walked the streets of an area only slightly less bad than the one in which she and her sisters lived. Seeing a long line of men (and some women) outside a door, she went up to a barely clothed, underfed-looking woman with grey-brown skin. "What is this? What are you waiting for?" The woman told her the place was called Helping Hands, and if someone didn't have any money, they could get a meal there. Only once a day, and only three times a week, but better than no meals at all. Ashi thanked her, and moved on. It was good to see that people honoured their benevolent Lord Father by helping those in greatest need.

In a different street, Avi found a store with a bed in the window, and turned into it. Looking around slowly, she caught the sales girl's attention, and she explained her situation: how she and her sisters had just found a new place to live and wanted some sleeping things. The girl seemed a bit dense, given how long it took her to understand that yes, the woven straw mats, thin pillows and light coverlet were more than enough.

Ari managed eight blocks before she needed to compose herself. She'd seen nothing in the store windows that seemed to hint of their quarry, only many things that both intrigued and baffled her, and chose to turn into a store than sold artwork. Within, the store was somehow both dim and well-lit, and she looked around slowly, turning the great page-like frames that held artwork of things she couldn't even begin to identify, working her way further back. The subject matter became less weird to her: dark forests, caves and caverns, scenes of carnage. Then she saw it. Incredible, impossible, yet there it was: the Hall of Worship, the very place where she had prayed so many times over the years, to the very life! The idol, the torches, everything, in every detail! The only thing not exactly right was the women's lack of attire. She knew the Daughters of Aku never went nude outside of the bathing pools. But the rest, only she could have painted that. So Ari turned to the man at the counter. "Can you tell me who made this?"

He walked over to her, and looked at the piece. "I can't remember, but the artist is local, I can find the agent." While he printed off a copy of the agent's card, he wondered if the black-clad girl was in some way connected with the artist. He passed it to her. "Here you go. Hope it goes well."

She smiled a bit to him. "Thank you. Are there more like this painting?"

Well, that was something to work from, maybe. "Yeah, she puts them out regularly, twice a year. Does other stuff, but those are her main thing. They sell pretty well, and rumour says she's going to have something really special next time."

"I look forward to it," the girl said, and sounded sincere.

"Come back any time you like," he said, hoping he sounded friendly rather than creepy. Her thanks was cool, but not cold. Or at least he hoped it was.

Back on the street, Ari looked at the little card. By now she'd come to understand the concept of addresses, and she was fairly sure of her location relative to the learning temple. Having never written anything down in her life, her memory was well-developed, and she quickly found her way there, and to the upper floor, to the strange, soft chairs and low tables. Neither first nor last, she took a seat around the set of tables the others had assembled, sitting on the floor, balanced on knees and toes; the others arrived soon enough, and shared the news of their days. Adi's eyes lit at the sight of Aji's find, though her face remained mostly still. A new idol, how wonderful! Ashi and Ami both smiled at Avi's purchase; a little comfort in their sleeping arrangements wouldn't go amiss. But it was Ari's news that brought the strongest reaction: the others came to full alert, and Ashi immediately rose. "We must find that address. The under-priestess will help us," she said with certainty.

Aji took the lead in this. "We wish to find an address. But we don't know the city very well, can you help us?"

The assistant librarian smiled to the girl, and said she could. The first step turned out to be even more basic than she'd expected: explaining what a map was and how to read one. Whoever had raised these girls seemed to have neglected their education almost completely; she was starting to be surprised they could even talk as well as they did. At least they knew how to pay attention, and they did learn very quickly. It would be easy for them to get a map of their own, since every service station sold them, and she said that much.

The girls bowed to her. "Thank you," they chorused, and Aji added. "You've been most helpful. Lord Father bless you." And with that, they departed, leaving the librarian to wonder just who or what their Lord Father was.

.oO()Oo.

Once they'd set up their altar, then managed to find a service station (it turned out to be a place where people did things involving vehicles and hoses, and bought dubious-looking foods) and purchase a map, they were able, with effort, to work out where the agent's office was. A glance at the sky told them it was too late to go there; they needed to return to the Dome, and another attempt to win at the monkey bars. This time was to be different: something called a round-robin tournament, in which they'd face three other teams: the Leaping Waves, the Flying Sparks, and the Laughing Waters, and they needed more practice to have any chance of winning.

"Ah, early I see," their trainer didn't quite sneer. "Good. The prize purse will be a percentage of the gate, plus half of all the teams' current stakes, and will be divided on the basis of final total score. Try not to lose too badly," he said, and started a song they didn't know, or even understand.

They tried to follow the song, and tried, and then Ashi dropped halfway through. "Everyone down, we're starting over!" The others did as told, then looked to her in evident puzzlement. "We've been thinking about this wrongly, it's not a battle, it's a dance. We can ignore the others, just move with the music. It's not much like the temple dances, but it's the same idea. Now go!" and they went.

Took them long enough, their handler thought. Well, they were going to need wins if they wanted to earn a living. He simply watched; his job wasn't to teach them theirs; they'd have to do that on their own, or ask others for help. Still, it was amusing, watching their fumble their way into improvement.

.oO()Oo.

The Flying Sparks had red sheaths, and the Laughing Waters deep blue, with fringes in red and green respectively. The Sparks were the Daughters' first opponent, and the song was… interestingly suited to them both. "I AM THE GOD OF HELL FIRE!" roared the singer, and the teams moved out. Black streaks and red blurs, springing and leaping from bar to bar, straight lines impossible between the lit bars rule and the jackstraw placement. And again, the sisters lost: the Sparks sent two of their number to block avenues of advancement and beat them to their trophy. Final score: 54 to 27.

During the recovery break, the girls discussed possible tactics, balancing their need to win against the risk of showing too much of their capabilities. Whatever they showed, the Samurai would learn about, they had no doubt. Their next match came quickly, against the Laughing Waters; these girls had an oddly dark skin tone, and unlike the Sparks with their reddish-purple hair, or the blue-green hair of the differently dark Waves, the Laughing Waters' hair was the same jet black as their own. The song began. "In the shadows of the night… " and both teams became collections of fast-moving streaks. The Daughters took an aggressive route, Aki focussed on the trophy, the others leaping to bars on the Waters' side, forcing them onto longer paths, slowing and delaying, while Aki quickly claimed an insuperable lead. The contest was almost as long as the song, but the Daughters finally won, 33 to 25.

Back on the ground, the Waters' leader approached Ashi. "That was gutsy," she said with admiration and respect. "I like that. Next time, you're going down." She put out her hand, and Ashi returned the gesture. "Good match."

She and her sisters bowed. "You are excellent opponents. Thank you for your praise." And both teams withdrew to wait for their next match.

It was not long before the last match, the Daughters against the Waves, and their strategy this time had Aki, Ashi and Ari on the trophy and the rest on blocking. As she sprang to a bar to which a Wave reached, Avi had a sudden inspiration, flipped, and kicked out hard, not at the Wave but at the bar, shifting it just enough to slow the Wave a fraction as she herself soared toward an unlit bar. Then it flashed green and she shot out her arm to grab it, spun, and flung herself toward where she thought the next light would be. The buzzers sounded simultaneously, and the officials had to review the footage to determine the winner. After a long, tense silence, they finally spoke. "The Dark Stars win, final score forty to twenty-eight!" and the crowd went wild.

The Waves ran over and embraced their opponents, congratulating them on their performance and thanking them for the challenge. The embraces were closer this time, though no longer, and pleasant, like holding each other. After they collected their winnings, with their handler's aid, they returned to their apartment. They filled the bowl with wax beads, set a bit of stone atop the wax, and started a flame. The long-necked fire-maker was a wonderful thing; Adi set it behind the idol, and the seven gave thanks to Aku for their victory.

Their prayers done, Adi blew out the altar flame and turned on the orange-tinted light bulb in the ceiling fixture. The seven gathered in a circle, and Ami spoke first. "I… I feel weird. Not bad, good, but… weird." She looked around the circle, saw the others' unsettled expressions.

Ashi nodded. "I… since we won. It doesn't feel like our victories in the Temple. It's not just how the Leaping Waves took the loss. It's something else, I don't know what. It's more like…" and she groped for the words.

"More like what I felt when I won a spar against one of you?" Aji suggested, and the others nodded.

"That's it! That's just it!" Avi exulted. "It felt like winning a sparring match between us! It's not just like that but it's close."

"And the Leaping Waves acted like they were part of us," Aki added. "Is there a word for that?" The others just shrugged. "Maybe she'll know," Aki added. "We'll ask tomorrow." The others nodded to that, and Aji rose to prepare a simple supper: while lightly seasoned pork cubes cooked, she prepared bowls of chopped mixed nuts, then swept the bits too small to pick up into a mortar, ground them fine, and sprinkled the dust over the cubes. Utensils were still something of a mystery to them, so when the cubes were cooked, Aji simply moved them to a shared platter, from which they ate delicately, interspersing the cubes with bits of nut, then after Avi cleaned the cooking and serving platters, the seven sparred, without weapons this time.

Partway through, a pounding came at at the door, and Aki went to open it. Outside, three large, oddly coloured men in ill-fitting clothes and strange headgear stood, then walked right in without so much as a by-your-leave. Aki stepped aside, watching them with bafflement and rising anger. This was not a place for men, it was their home and their Temple. Only the Daughters of Aku belonged here.

"Hey, pretty ladies, we here ta make you real welcome, you dig?" drawled one of them in a weirdly distorted way they could understand but somehow didn't want to. "Yeah, y'see this our patch, you gotta pay yo' rent t'us, get me?"

They didn't, not entirely, but Aji drew out her butterfly swords and Ari her naginata. "We already pay rent. We will not pay it twice," Ashi said from behind them.

The men just smirked as they looked around. "You live in a miniature red-light district, you wear black latex, you totally hot, you wanna pay our kind'a rent," one of the other men said, with a wide grin showing a polished metal tooth.

"Oh, yeah," said the last. a skinnier fellow with hair in some colour they couldn't name, "and we gonna love collectin'," as he grabbed his crotch, while the girls looked between each other, completely and blatantly baffled.

"Yeah," said the biggest man. "So, you wanna take off the suits, or want us to take 'em off?" he asked. The Daughters' faces hardened, and their would-be partners, or assailants, survived only because the girls doubted whether or not killing was actually the appropriate response. They tossed the unconscious toughs up to the top of the staircase, then went back inside, closed and locked the door, resumed to their sparring, performed their last prayers, and went to sleep on their new mats, with their new pillows, and under their new comforter. Against what they were used to, it was a taste of Paradise, especially once they'd cuddled together in the comfortable red-tinted darkness, under the protective gaze of their loving God.


	6. Back in the Fold

The next morning, after a simple breakfast of water and nuts, the girls stepped out, and found a strange mark on their door. It was quite obvious who was responsible, and they quickly spread out, Ashi with Avi, Adi with Ari, and Aji and Ami with Aki. It was the second team found the men from the previous night, and as they passed a burning stick between them, a kunai struck it from the thin man's hand. "You marked our door," Ari said flatly.

The man smirked. "Yeah, we mark all our stuff. Your place, your stuff, you girls, you belong ta us, dig?"

Adi shot up to him, looking almost straight up. "We belong to our Lord Father, not to you," she snarled. "Remove the mark."

The man with the metal tooth laughed. "No way, girlie. This our patch, we say what happen here, not a coupla' rubbersluts."

"Last night," Ari reminded him, "we threw you up the staircase. We were being gentle."

He looked down at the tiny girl. "Yeah, last night there five more of you and you had weapons." He and the other two pulled small knives. "You got no weapons, no backup, no chance," he said, and lunged. In less time that it took to breathe deeply once, the three were on the ground again, groaning in pain.

Voice flat and cold, Ari squatted before the three. "You will remove the mark from our door. You have until tonight." Then she nicked their necks lightly, vanished her kunai, and the sisters left. Back at the apartment, they told the others what had happened, and the group moved out, walking briskly toward the agent's office.

At the base of the building, the girls halted, and spoke in their private language. "Only one of us should go in," Aki said. "All of us together are too obvious. The agent will tell her about us, she'll know who and what we are, and flee." The others nodded to that.

"You go to the agent. We'll wait in the entry," Ashi said, and they entered, finding places to sit. The benches felt very strange, but they could endure the weird angles their legs made. It just felt wrong, to seat themselves so.

Aki went to the building directory, hoping to get some idea of how to actually reach the agent. Hmm. The names had numbers beside them, perhaps that would tell her something? She looked and walked around the odd, squared-off ring. There, above the metal doors, numbers. Yes, the number at the front of the address matched the numbers above the door. But it didn't feel right, going into a room she didn't know how to get out of, especially since she didn't know how to open the doors. So she turned to the doors she did know how to open, and found one with stairs beyond it, up and down. She went up, and found numbers going up, and opened the door with the number that matched her memory. Then she opened another door that matched the numbers she remembered, and stepped in. The room beyond was small, with a two seat bench, a counter with a pale, yellow-haired woman behind it, one who looked as if she could be a Daughter of Aku if she were taller. Her covering, of a shade of blue for which Aki had no name, deeper than the sky with the sun high, but lighter than the sky near sunset, covered only her neck, torso, and upper thighs.

The receptionist glanced up to the new arrival, and immediately slotted her into the category of "eccentric artist." She smiled professionally, "Good afternoon. May I have your name and what sort of artwork you produce?"

The girl hesitated. "I'm not looking for an agent, I'm looking for an artist." The receptionist shifted her into the category of "intense fan, possibly loony." Well, not her problem.

"So, do you know the artist you're looking for?" she asked, and the girl shook her head.

"She produces paintings of a temple to Aku and the women who lives and worship there," the girl said.

The receptionist nodded. "I know her. I can give you her phone number, if you like."

The girl shook her head. "I don't have a… phone." Whatever that was.

The receptionist sighed. What kind of weirdo didn't have a phone? Well, she could deal with that. She quickly printed out a copy of the artist's card, and handed it to the new arrival. "Here's her address." The girl bowed, and departed after thanking her.

.oO()Oo.

Back in the lobby, Aki's sisters had begun to spar with each other to keep themselves occupied and alert, and the occasional person passing in or out of the building gave them wide, careful berth, though they watched with great interest. They soon lost track of time, aware of their surrounding without being aware of that awareness, and when she returned, Aki joined the sparring smoothly. Then they bowed to each other, and left the buildings while they spoke in their own language.

"I have her address," Aki said, her voice brighter than their mother would likely have approved. "Now we need to find it and… and then what?"

"What is it?" Ashi asked and was told. "We'll see when we get here," and they turned into a store that sold furniture, where they opened their map, and with some time and effort, and a few shooings-away of salespeople, managed to find the route they'd need.

.oO()Oo.

After a number of wrong turns, the girls finally managed to find the address they wanted. They'd also learned that building numbers didn't always go in order: their desired building was #2008 on its street, but it hadn't been beside 2007 or 2006; it had been between 2004 and 2007 and that just made no sense, especially since it was down a short, narrow still they proceeded down that lane, each with a hand behind her back should weapons be needed. In this narrow space, there would be no room to swing, but what matter that to fighting women trained in narrow tunnels and twisty passages? The gate before the building was no greater obstacle; they merely leapt it. But now they faced a deeper problem: how to enter. To break in would be simple, yet they wished to be quiet and discreet, so far as that was possible. Aji and Ari looked at the panel near the door with the many names and numbers upon it, and the white circles beside.

"When we were at mall," Aji said, "we saw people touch circles like these, and make things happen, didn't we?"

Ari nodded. "We did. And you think that if we press the circle by her name, perhaps she will hear it?"

"Perhaps. This place is filled with wonders: heat without flame, light from smooth stone, water with no well, even images that move and change, and machines that fly and carry things. Is it so much stranger to think that we could talk to someone beyond hearing?"

"No," she answered slowly. "It is not," and she glanced to her peaked-haired sister, who nodded.

"Aki," Ashi said, "go and try it." And Aki did, pressing the button twice, briefly, as she had seen done with the machines that held small foods.

A distorted voice came from the panel. "Yes? Who is it?"

"I have seen your work," Aki said, fairly loudly, "and your agent said I could find you here. May I come in?"

The voice came again. "I'll buzz you in."

The girls looked to each other, puzzled by that turn of phrase. Then a strange buzzing sound came from the door, and Aji quickly pulled upon the handle. It opened and they filed in. Then up the stairs to the floor and the room, where Aki knocked.

.oO()Oo.

in the apartment, Ayami put on a kettle for tea, and straightened things up a little. It was taking the person a long time to get up, unless of course it had been some sort of silly prank, so she took out her sketch pad, and started refining a new concept. Eventually, a knock came, and she put aside her pad and pencil, rose, and walked to the door. She peered through the peephole, and spun on her heel. "Akane, run!" she yelled as she sprinted for the balcony. Better to die of the fall than what the Temple would do.

Aki kicked the door open and the seven raced her to the room's exits, three of them blocking her off, the others going into the rooms off the main. "We're not here to hurt you. Or to take you back. We want to talk, nothing more," she said quickly.

The woman looked around, eyes wide and trembling. Every way out, blocked. She couldn't even get to the kitchen to try to open her… She tried to bite open her wrists, only to find her arms pinned by the one with the pageboy. She slumped, and broke down sobbing. "Please… please, leave my daughter alone. She has nothing to do with this," she begged, voice thick with despair.

Ashi walked up to her. "We can't leave her alone," she said, voice gentle and soft. "This is about her as well. But we swear to you, we mean you no harm."

She looked up. "Swear by what?" she asked suspiciously.

Ashi smiled. "I swear by…" and trailed off. "I swear it upon our idol of Aku," she finally answered, and the woman straightened up.

"Will you swear it upon my idol?" she asked, voice tense and thin, and Ashi nodded. At that, Ayami straightened up, and some of the tension left her. "Please, come with me." She crossed the hardwood floor, and at the wall with three doors, opened the one nearest the door to the hallway. Before the door, she shed her loose black pants and white shirt, her soft shoes and white underthings, calmly and with neither haste nor dawdling, then from a compartment beside the door took what the girls thought of as proper attire: black bodysuit, black robe, headdress and mask, then donned it.

Just as she put on her mask, Avi came out of the second bedroom, a girl not far from earliest womanhood holding her hand. "Mommy? Is it time for prayers already?" the ponytailed girl asked, eyes wide and head tilted slightly.

Ayami turned to her. "It is time for a special ceremony. You may watch if you like," she said in a cold, distant tone, so like their mother's the girls shivered slightly.

Akane nodded. "Yes, Mommy. I'll get changed."

.oO()Oo.

Akane heard her mother's shout, then the crack of splitting wood, and dashed to her closet, grabbing up her emergency coat and her bag. Before she could reach the door, a shadow solidified around her, hand over her mouth. "We're not here to hurt you. Unless we have to. Don't yell, and we won't have to. Agreed?" the shadow asked, and Akane nodded. She could hear talking, but couldn't make it out. "Take my hand, and don't try to run, and I'll take you to your mother," the shadow said, and when Akane nodded, they walked out of her bedroom.

She saw six girls dressed the way she normally dressed for prayers, and looked up to see the shadow was another girl like that. And they were all so pretty, with such beautiful faces. And her mother was dressed for prayers, but why? It wasn't sunset or sunrise or midnight. "Mommy? Is it time for prayers already?" she asked.

Her mother turned to her, back ramrod straight, mask facing straight ahead. "It is time for a special ceremony. You may watch if you like," she said in a cold, distant tone, the tone that meant "this is very serious."

Akane nodded. "Yes, Mommy. I'll get changed." Oh, this was getting scary. She drew from the little closet her prayer suit, and very quickly changed from her regular clothes. Then she followed the others into the little shrine room. Her mother lit the little oil sconces and the large oil bowl before the idol. She and the girls offered the basic prayer to Aku, in which Akane joined, asking Aku's attention and offering their respect and devotion.

.oO()Oo.

Aji watched the little girl from the corner of her eye, and smiled very slightly. She certainly knew her prayers and forms. Out of courtesy, Ashi had allowed the woman to lead the prayer, and Aji simply watched quietly. They rose, and the woman and Ashi faced each other. "I swear before the image of our Lord Father Aku, and through that image Aku himself, that I and my sisters mean no harm to you or your daughter," she said, left hand upon the idol and right hand raised.

The woman responded by placing her right hand upon the idol and raising her left. "I accept your word, and swear that neither I nor my daughter mean any harm to you or your sisters." Then the two stepped away, and the woman led the prayer to Aku, thanking Him for witnessing their vows. Then the woman rose, and covered the sconces, then the bowl. The little girl opened the door, and the woman changed on the spot; the girl withdrew to her room and came out in a simple garment, a tube of thick, dark yellow fabric with arm coverings.

.oO()Oo.

The nine gathered in the main room, a simple space with a wooden floor, decorative hangings of dense woodlands, a few stands with decorative stone carvings, a weapons rack in one corner, the Daughters noticed with approval. and a large, low, square wooden table, big enough to seat twelve. Ayami went over to a model of an ancient bamboo hut, tilted back the roof, and started up an ambient sound track of forest sounds; the Daughters first looked around in shock and startlement, then slowly relaxed, smiling a bit, accepting the sound from nowhere as another wonder of the greater world.

Once her mother sat beside her once more, Akane looked over to her. "Mommy, why are these girls dressed for prayer?"

Her mother opened her mouth, then closed it. "No. I'll let them tell you. if you would," she said, looking across the table to Ashi, Aji and Ari. Aki and Avi sat to her right, Ami and Adi to the left, and Ashi answered.

"Our Lord and Master Aku is one with the Darkness; he was born from it, and it fills him with infinite power. To best serve Him, our mother made us one with the darkness as well. When we were only little children, she pushed us, one by one, into a pit in the Temple, in which lies a sort of living darkness, drawn from Aku's realm. The darkness was very hot, and hurt very much," and the Daughters' faces grew tight with remembered pain. "But it bonded to us, and through it, we have access to a tiny fraction of the power of Darkness that fills our Lord. These darksuits are not merely clothing; they are marks of honour, and signs of distinction. And that is why we do not cover them."

Ayami nodded. "I witnessed the ceremony, and I knew I could not be part of their raising. My heart is too weak for that, and so during the temple's rest time, I went to the chamber where the Daughters slept…"

Ami cut her off, "And tried to steal us! You turned against the Daughters of Aku, His most favoured servants, then fled like a coward!"

Ayami sighed heavily, head down, hands in her lap. "No. I didn't try to steal you. It would have been impossible even if I had wanted to; I only picked you up carefully, held you close, and kissed your foreheads softly, one by one. That was when your mother found me, and accused me of trying to steal you. And, yes… I was afraid. I fled the Temple rather than face judgement, and managed to reach this city. Every night, I cried for the pain I knew the Daughters were putting you through."

The sisters looked to each other, confused. Cried for their pain? How could a Daughter of Aku be so weak as that?

Ayami looked down again. "I need to ask: if you're not here to kill me, or take me back, why are you here? Whatever it is, please, please don't hurt my daughter. She wasn't party to my actions."

Ashi smiled slightly. "We won't hurt her, and we're not here to return you to the Temple." Her eyes teared up, to Ayami's astonishment. "There is no Temple left. It came under attack, Mother had us sortie against the attackers, and when they drew us off, we don't know what they did, but there was a great thud and when we got back, the entrances were choked by rubble and the Temple silent."

"And you came here for Mommy's help?" Akane asked, eyes bright.

"Well, yes," Ashi admitted. "We didn't want to, to turn to a kidnapper and an apostate, but you were the only one we could think of who could give us the help we need. And… you're not an apostate at all, are you?" she asked, softly.

Ayami raised her face, and shook her head slightly. "I never was. I admit, my faith is little more than tatters now, and Akane's only a few threads, I fear, but I never turned from Aku."

Ashi smiled a little to her. "We will help. Our dwelling holds an idol, and soon, we will consecrate it as a temple. You will be welcome there, and your daughter, and we will help you to regain your faith, and strengthen your daughter's."

Ayami teared up. "Oh, thank you! I'll be glad to help you however I can; what have you learned about surviving outside the temple?" And the sisters began to tell their tale.

.oO()Oo.

By the time they were done with the tale-telling, Ayami was looking down, face drawn down in sadness. "I've been where you are. You need to get back to your apartment, then to the dome. Come tomorrow, the same time, and we'll be waiting here for you," she said. "And I'll have something special for you, something I think you'll like," she added with a faint smile.


	7. Taking the Throne

The walk back was quicker and easier, and the girls found the men at the top of their stairs. With friends. A lot of friends. Aji flicked her eyes over them, and said in their private language, "Three to one. Do we charge, or surround?"

"Leave them a way out," Ashi answered in that same language. "We'll attack in turns, no weapons. No need to kill them that I can see."

The big man, the one who'd led the ones who'd marked their door, frowned. "Talk real talk! You do not get to disrespect me like that, you mine!"

"No," Aki said. "We belong to our Lord Father. We will give you one chance, and only one, to remove your mark and withdraw." She saw no need to add threats of consequences.

"Yeah, right," he said. "We got you outnumbered, an' out-armed. You wanna be dead, or spread?" He almost laughed at their baffled looks, then the one with the peaked hair exploded into a dark blur, with a gut punch, a left side kick, then a leg sweep and elbow drop. Three quick heartbeats, three downed fighters, and Aki stepped into Ashi's place as the men pulled out knives and chains.

She kicked one in the shin with an audible crack, drove a spear-hand into the solar plexus of the second, then spun to box the last one's ears, all so quickly even her sisters could barely follow her actions. The other men, and a few women, dropped their weapons. "You may tend your wounded," she said, but made no move to stand down. One of the gangers took out his phone and called for an ambulance; others went to the downed men to administer what first aid they could.

Ashi addressed the crowd. "By tomorrow night, you will remove your marks from our building." She did not give them options, and the girls continued to watch the gang until the injured were taken away and the gang dispersed. By then it was close to sunset, and the girls went into their apartment to perform their devotions, then they to the dome for another series of monkey bars matches.

That night, after their final devotions for the day, the girl lay close to each other, actually touching, upon the tatami they'd snapped together, and under the light coverlet they shared. Heads upon the pillows, no light save the slight glow from the red window, they spoke softly.

"She's… not what I expected," Aki said softly. "Composed, honest, faithful. I want to like her, but…"

Avi picked it up. "But Mother said that to turn away from the Temple was to turn away from Aku. Yet she has her own shrine, and she's trying to raise her daughter in the faith. I don't know. Can we trust her?"

Adi spoke slowly, thoughtfully. "She is of the faith. Her faith is weak, she said it herself, and Akane's is weaker. But she has a shrine, she remembers the prayers, the pledges. And the only thing she asked is that we not hurt Akane. I want to like her, too."

Ashi considered the others' words, and said into the darkness, "We will call her our ally. At least for now."

.oO()Oo.

The next morning, they performed their devotions before breakfast, then ate and took turns in the bathroom. Then sparring, on the floor, the walls, even the ceiling. Their only rule was "don't hurt each other;" beyond that, all tactics were fair. That done, they cleaned their faces once more, and went out to explore the town, this time as a group. The weather, they noticed, was turning colder as the Long Night drew near. They might soon need something beyond their darksuits to stay warm outside, a thing to ask Ayami about. For now, they were content to wander, look at the things the greater world offered, and make note of things to ask Ayami about. And there were so many of those things! Some, they could work out from context: they'd never heard of "sushi" but the illustrations showed them that sushi was a dish based on small white things stuck together, with other things on top of them, or on rolls of the little things with other things in the middle of them. Others were utter mysteries, such as the curiously flimsy garments they saw in some store windows, or many of the store names. More than once, they fled to the rooftops to calm themselves and get rest from the excess of the city, and by the time they reached Ayami's apartment, their heads were throbbing.

.oO()Oo.

Ayami, in a loose, deep red dress, smiled faintly to them. "Welcome, Blessed Daughters," and bowed. Akane, dressed now in loose brown pants and a cream shirt, also bowed. "Come, gather around the table. I will show you a ceremony that might help you calm and centre yourselves," She stepped into the kitchen, and after turning on a seacoast soundtrack, Akane took a seat at the table, as did the Daughters. She emerged shortly thereafter, with a tray containing various implements the Daughters didn't recognize, but she named for them, explaining their purpose and uses in the cha-no-yu ritual. She smiled to see their eyes grow wide and their mouths purse in delight at their first taste of higashi; hers were shaped like deer, rabbits and other game animals. "Your lives are hard, and strict, I know and understand that," she said after the ritual was complete, "for I too was and remain a Daughter of Aku. But you needn't exclude all pleasures; our Lord Father made all things, including the delightful ones."

The girls looked to each other, and spoke in their private language, then looked to Ayami. "Then why did Mother forbid us to go beyond the Temple?" Ashi asked.

Ayami sighed. "The High Priestess is… was… very zealous, determined that you should learn only the things she felt you needed for your mission. So I can only guess she kept you confined so you would have less to ask about. Time spent answering questions was time lost from your training."

Ashi winced slightly at that. "What of Akane's training? Have you attended to that?"

Akane smiled. "Mommy's taught me very well!" she said in a bright tone, at which Aki flicked a higashi at her, hitting her right between the eyes. She yelped, and rubbed the impact spot with the heel of her right hand, which she'd failed to bring up in time to block.

Aki smiled. "Your reactions are excellent, Akane," and the girl went from pouty to smiles almost instantly.

"The Daughters were trained to operate on the level of the Samurai," her mother said, and Akane's jaw dropped. "There's no shame in Aki besting you." Akane just stared at the older girls, her eyes drifting slowly between them.

Ashi nodded. "Our purpose is life is to kill the Samurai. Perhaps after that, we can think about reestablishing the Temple. I don't know if we can, or how. But for now, Ayami, please, keep yourself and Akane safe. You're the best hope for our future."

Ayami shook her head. "No, Blessed Daughters," she said, and her daughter grew almost unnaturally still at her mother's chill tone. "We cannot stay safe; the Last Battle is soon. All the signs are present: the man of many lands, the rising of the people against our Lord and Master, the sword that cuts the spirit. Even you, Blessed Daughters, are named in the Book of Aku: the dark stars, the shadowed sisters."

The girls' jaws dropped, in shock and in bafflement. "What do you mean?" Aji asked.

Ayami sighed heavily. "There is a… a group of… did the High Priestess tell you of stars?" They confirmed that she had. "Good. There is a group called the Seven Sisters. One of the signs of the Last Battle's approach is the appearance of the dark stars, the shadow sisters. You are those stars. Think about it: you are seven, seven sisters, sheathed in darkness, raised in darkness."

Ashi turned pale. "And we are called the Dark Stars… oh no, oh no… you must be wrong, this can't be right. The Last Battle that will end the world? No, no, no…" and her sisters looked just as horrified, just as stricken.

Ayami looked down at her hands. "The Revelation to Akiko is… ambiguous. It says that the sword that cuts the spirit will be lost and find its true wielder, that the wielder will enter into Aku's realm and a great battle will occur, and that when the battle is lost and won, the old Law will be gone, and new Law in place, and it will be good. The book nowhere says who will win, or who the sword's true wielder is, or even what the new Law will be."

The girls looked to each other, and to Ayami. "That's… scary," Adi finally said. "That our Lord Father could lose the Last Battle, and it would be a good thing?" She hugged herself and shuddered, and Ami put an arm around her shoulder; Adi hesitated, then returned the gesture. Ashi looked at this, not sure how to feel about that. It was true, they'd always supported each other, but not that way and certainly not in the open. Was the greater world making them weak?

"We have a question for you, one that we hope is less disturbing. We've noticed that things are getting colder, and thinking we might need something more than our darksuits. Can you tell us about that?"

Ayami relaxed a bit. "It's called winter. There are four broad times of the year: Spring, the time of warmth and much rain - you do know about rain, don't you?"

Ashi nodded. "The night in the dwelling, there was rain. We heard it and saw it."

Ayami smiled. "Good. This is the very end of autumn, the season of cold and of rain. Soon will be winter, the time of great cold and a thing called snow. Then spring, a time of warming and of rain, then summer, a time of heat and sun. Brief Night is at the middle of summer, Long Night at the middle of winter, and Night's Rise and Night's Ebb mark the start and end of winter. Winter is the time of Aku, when the darkness is greatest and the shadows longest. The others are needed so that life can gain the strength to survive Aku's closeness to the world." And the sisters nodded. "You will likely need warmer coverings, snow suits and boots and gloves. And you might want to buy what are called umbrellas. Akane, get your umbrella to show them."

The girl rose, and went to her room to fetch an odd, vaguely jo-like object. "This is an umbrella. You take this snap," and she showed it to them, "open it, and push this button." The object unfolded itself into a vaguely shield-like disc on a stick. "Then you hold it like this, and it helps keep the rain off you," and she showed how to use it.

Ayami nodded to that. "There are different sorts. Simple ones that don't fold up and you open by hand, ones that don't invert in heavy wind, even ones you can use as weapons or shields, but those are very expensive and not really very useful. I'd suggest you spend the winter here in the city, stay inside as much as you can. Save up your money, and in spring, buy equipment and vehicles and modern weapons and training in their use. If you're to have any chance against the Samurai, you'll need that." Her expression grew solemn and sad. "You might want to… I'm sorry to say this. You should excavate the Temple, salvage the Book of Aku. So far as I know, it's the only copy in the world, and we can't rebuild without it."

They nodded reluctantly. "When spring comes," Ashi agreed.

.oO()Oo.

Ayami prepared a dinner for the girls, a meal deliberately chosen to feature the most exotic (to them) foods she could think of: peanut butter and honey tea sandwiches for appetizers, halibut and chips with coleslaw on the side for the main course, and for dessert, miniature cinnamon rolls, with green tea for a drink and light lemon sorbet to cleanse the palate between courses, and when they arrived, greeted them with a polite bow and invitation to enter. They accepted, and took their places at the table. Akane put on a seashore soundtrack while her mother brought out the sandwiches and the tea, and set them in place. Adi led the prayer to Aku, invoking His blessing to strengthen them to get the most good from His generous gifts, then they began to eat. The sisters' eyes opened wide at the taste of the sandwiches, and though they ate delicately, they also ate with clear delight. Ayami smiled a bit, and Akane almost repressed a giggle.

That earned her a suspicious look from Ami, but the look didn't earn Ami an explanation, and her look shifted to baffled. She remembered being Akane's age, but she couldn't honestly recall a single time she'd made that that sound, and she looked to Ayami, her expression still baffled. Ayami looked to the her daughter, face stern. "Akane, you should know better than to laugh at your guests. They grew up in the Temple of the Daughters of Aku, our foods are completely new to them."

And the little girl looked down, cheeks red. "I'm sorry, Mommy. I'm sorry, girls."

Ashi smiled slightly to her. "Thank you, Akane," and at Ayami's direction took a bit of tea, then some of the lemon sorbet. This time, Akane managed to suppress her giggles at the sisters' astonished look. As Ayami brought out the main course, Ashi spoke briefly to her sisters in their private language. "We'll ask our questions after the meal, agreed?" and they agreed.

Ayami looked between them at that little exchange. She didn't recall learning or even hearing that language during her time in the Temple, had the High Priestess had a revelation? She watched the girls follow her lead in the use of the implements, pleased and a little surprised at the quickness with which they mastered the new skill, though their concentration on her actions and care in matching them was a bit unsettling, as if they were expecting a beating if they got it wrong. Granted, Ayami had taken her share of beatings growing up, and so had Akane, even if she'd had far fewer, but never for simply not mastering something on the first try.

What in the world is this? Aji wondered. The coating was utterly unlike anything she'd had before, and though the filling was clearly meat, meat from what? The taste and texture were drastically unlike anything she'd had before, and the odd sticks of… whatever it was that Ayami called "chips" were even stranger, and the sweet, red sauce. She could tell the "coleslaw" was some kind of shredded vegetable, but what was the white stuff? The tea was becoming familiar, but the "lemon sorbet" wasn't even close. Akane removed their plates and utensils, then brought in a plate full of tiny bits of that "bread" stuff, wrapped into little spirals and with something white and hard-looking on the top.

Ayami gestured gracefully to the plate. "Cinnamon mini-rolls, you eat them with your fingers like this," and popped one in her mouth. Oh, this was a good batch, and still just a little warm. Akane sighed a little in delight at the treat, and the girls' eyes went wide in amazement. It didn't take long for the dessert to disappear entirely. Ayami smiled to her guests. "I'd imagine you have some questions."

"We do," Ari said. "First, what was that meat we had? What is the cold food called, and what is the flavour of it? And the little bits of bread, what were the stuffs between them?"

Ayami stared at the first question. "You don't know about fish? How were you raised!?" She shook her head sharply, and Akane was staring at them as if they'd sprouted extra appendages.

"Ah… we grew up entirely within the Temple, why?" Avi answered. "Only Ashi ever even looked outside, and she was beaten for it. We all were, when we tried to help her against Rika." Though she did her best, a hint of sadness and pain seeped out, and Ayami's heart ached again.

She pulled herself together. "Normally, we had fish fairly often. They're the animals that live in water, and there were many in the river that runs through the forest." The girls nodded to that. "I'm surprised you've never had fish before. Very surprised. Unless… the river is still there, isn't it?" Ashi told her it was. "Well, that river is one place you'd find fish. The fish we had tonight is a fish from the ocean." And at their baffled look, she sighed in dejection. "You've seen the great water beyond the city, haven't you?" They nodded. "Good. That's the ocean, it's a vast body of water with salt in it, and many sorts of creatures live in it, even thinking beings." She nodded at their questioning looks. "The Manaquas, for example: when the oceans of Manaqua were taken from that world, Aku allowed them to settle in our seas, on condition that they pay him tribute in the form of a great statue raised to him. Each month, they have done this, and if you travel far to the east, across the greatest stretch of ocean, you will find these statues. I know this to be true, for I have seen the Manaquas raising one of their tribute statues."

The girls looked to each other. How wise was their Lord Father, and how generous! "It is a pleasant taste," Ashi said. "Is the outside its cooked skin, or some other new thing?"

"That," she answered, "is called 'batter,' a food of the greater world. You can learn to make it, I'm sure. Now… the very cold food is called lemon sorbet. It's made from water, a sweet stuff called honey, and the juice of a fruit called lemon." She knew full well they'd never had fruit juice; the Daughters of Aku drank only water, though she hadn't been able to maintain their extremely austere diet in the greater world. "The little bits of bread… between them is honey, and… all right. You've had nuts, I know that. If you take a nut and grind it very, very fine, you get a stuff called nut butter. That butter was made from a nut called peanut."

The girls nodded, and thanked her for the meal and the information. "Where do you and Akane train? There's clearly no space here." Aji asked.

"We go to a gym!" Akane said. "We do all kinds of fighting, you should see it!"

"I'd like that," Ashi said. "Tomorrow perhaps? We have to go to our apartment and then the Dome. We're doing something different tonight, but we don't know what." Their hosts accepted that, and after a few pleasantries, the girls departed.


	8. On the Dark Path

As they approached their building, they first saw that it was entirely cleaned of those strange markings, and then saw people coming out to greet them. Men and women, smooth faces and wrinkled, and one man with wrinkled face and white hair stepped forward. "Thank you, girls. Those hoodlums have been a problem for years, everyone able to fight them, they recruited, so nobody was willing and able to drive them off. Now you've stood up to them, and backed it up, we can finally start putting this place into shape. They'll be back, though, and maybe you can trash them again, get them to start treating this place better?"

Ashi took her time to sort that through. "We'll do what we can," she said at last, and the old man thanked them again, as did the others. Then the girls went back into their apartment, where they performed their devotions. "Do you think we should consecrate this as a temple? Adi, do you know the rituals?"

She nodded to that. "It will take all of us, and we'll have to find the materials. But we can do it, and then Ayami and Akane will have a fit place to worship." The apartment was quite large enough, at least by their standards, to hold themselves and a few others if the other two needed an emergency shelter. It was more than large enough for proper worship; Adi's only worry was that they might not be able to find the right materials.

But that was a worry for later; for now, they had their sunset prayers to perform, and the Dome to go to. What was their challenge to be this time?

.oO()Oo.

It turned out to be nothing they'd expected, or could have expected. A floor panel dropped open so quickly that even they couldn't leap clear in time, and they landed in a lightless room, on a soft floor. "Welcome, my dears, to the Paths of Peril. Your job is simple: Find the way out. There are many hazards, and your efforts are being shown through the use of near-infrared cameras. In other words, the audience can see you, but you can't see anything. Good luck." And the voice cut off with a click.

Ashi spoke in their private language. "We stay together. No splitting. Weapons out." The others did as ordered. "Explorer formation," and the seven formed a circle, facing out. To fighters trained to dodge arrows by sound alone, that was nothing. Ashi started walking, very slowly and softly, kusarigama in her hands. Avi held her kanabo, Ami her sai, and Aki had her katana low and vertical. Ari's naginata was in high guard position, as was Ari's yari, and Aji's hands were filled with her butterfly swords. The seven moved through the maze slowly, carefully, steering by faint changes in air pressure and echo texture.

.oO()Oo.

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the commentator in his brassy voice, "this is new. I've never seen anyone adapt to the darkness so quickly, we might have to bring in the opposition sooner than expected!" and the audience cheered as a door slid open, almost silently. But "almost" was all the girls needed.

"Avi, with me. We don't know what this is, so we kill it as quick as we can," Ashi said. From twenty metres, their opponent dashed toward them, footfalls faint and soft, and when it was less than five metres away, Ashi flung her star-pointed weight at it and Avi leapt high to crush its head, she hoped. They were rewarded with a yelp and howl, and a groaned offer of surrender. In public language, Ashi said to the being, "We accept your surrender. Attempt ambush and…" The creature slowly walked away, and the girls resumed their careful exploration.

.oO()Oo.

"I never expected that, ladies and gentleman. The Carinan sabrevore is supposed to be one of the most persistent hunters in the galaxy! These girls are something to be reckoned with. Notice the way they move, soft, slow and careful. That's the only way to walk the Paths of Peril," he said, then let out a soft sound of surprise. "Ladies and gentlemen, the Master of the Paths informs me that the walls are now electrified!"

.oO()Oo.

Within the maze, the girls could tell instantly that something had changed: the ozone scent, the faint stirring of their hair from static. "Stay clear of the walls," Ashi said in their private language, and the others acknowledged: whatever the change was, it was not likely good. They kept moving, carefully following the left wall, but not touching it. They had grown up in a cavern complex; this was no great challenge to them. Robots, traps, such things slowed them, but did not stop them, and though they could not hear it, the announcer kept narrating their victories. At long last, they found the exit, and Ashi hurled a bullet at it. A wise choice, the egg-shaped metal projectile sparking as it hit. She quickly traded places with Avi; a hard blow on the briefly revealed handle smashed the lock, her mostly wooden weapon too poor a conductor to carry even an incapacitating charge. The door slowly opened, and they stepped out to cheers and howls.

.oO()Oo.

Back at their apartment, the girls were almost giddy as they lay upon their mats, heads resting on firm pillows, light coverlet drawn up over them, cuddled up close. Bellies full and thirst sated, softness beneath them and warmth from their comforter, warm air and each other, their Lord Father's beneficent gaze upon them, such bliss. What more could they need? Slowly, gently, they drifted off, and for the first time since leaving the Temple, slept entirely untroubled.

.oO()Oo.

They gathered once more at Ayami's apartment, and told her of their traversal of the maze. Her eyes went wide as the tale went along. "The others trained you very well; I could not have done that. Truly, Aku's fire burns within you," she said, her tone soft, awe-struck. "But come, Akane and I will take you to the gym where we train." And with that, she rose, put on her coat and shoes as her daughter shut off the forest sounds, then the group departed. As they went down the stairs, Ayami spoke further. "We're too many for my car, so we'll take a bus. The gym's a bit too far to reasonably walk. Do you know about busses yet?" The sisters shook their heads, and Akane couldn't repress a giggle. That earned her a warning glare from her mother, she put on a contrite look, and the sisters looked on in amazement. Ayami was so gentle with her! Such a breach of manners would have earned any of them slaps across the face at best! But they paid close attention to Ayami's explanation of busses. Very soon, they were at the gym, a large facility with few windows.

Ayami led the girls through the lobby, then down a broad, white corridor to a door lined in blue. She quickly tapped at a panel, then looked at the result. "Interesting. Girls, this is going to be a challenge for all of us. I asked for a random scenario, and we're going to be fighting with tanbo, in the High Jungle, heat and humidity at max. Oh, and no clothing, no equipment but the tanbo. I need to tell the computer about your darksuits, in a way it can understand," and she tapped at the keys. "There. The computer will automatically disqualify you if you pull anything from your darkness, but you'll be allowed to cling to the trees and won't be expected to remove your shadows."

Ashi and others looked between each other, confused, but Ashi nodded. "So… we're fighting with just tanbo, in a hot, wet place. That much I understand. Let's start."

The nine stepped through the door when it slid open, then Ayami and Akane stripped, placed their clothes and personal effects in storage niches with sliding panels on their fronts, and all of them collected tanbo, hardwood rods roughly 45cm long. Then a second door opened, and as their hosts smiled in anticipation, the girls gaped in amazement and incomprehension. They'd come to understand trees, but these, these were not mere trees. These were giants, wider than the Daughters were tall, branches thick as their thighs, leaves the size of their faces. And neither up nor down showed any end to the trees. Their hosts leapt lightly on to separate branches, then the Daughters sprang to trunks, clinging by the power of their bonded shadows.

Their hosts sprang at them while they were in mid-air, and managed to score stinging hits on Avi and Ari's feet before falling to catch other branches, swing themselves upright on a lower branch, then striking each others' palms in a strange, hands-high gesture. Then the Daughters sprang at them, one at a time, forcing the two onto a purely defensive fight; even two on one, any of the Daughters was far beyond a match for them, even with the handicap of the bizarre environment, and their hosts did the only thing they could: run and block and dodge. Yet as they fought on, the mother and daughter let themselves smile a bit. They could never defeat the Blessed Children and knew it, but they didn't need to. All they had to do was draw out the fight a little longer, and… Yes! They were starting to slow, starting to get a little clumsy. Still far above their level, but they were definitely losing a bit of edge.

"End program!" Ayami cried out, and the trees went away, replaced by simple columns and rods. They jumped to the ground and the Daughters joined them. "You fought well. I didn't plan this," she said, "but it was a good choice for a lesson," she said as she led them into the small antechamber, then gestured to a second door they hadn't recognized. "If you need to wash, you can do so in there." Ashi looked in, and saw a small bathroom. She went in, washed her face, one by one her sisters did the same, then their hosts took it in turns to shower and dress.

Back at Ayami's apartment, the needed conversation finally started. "In the areas you were trained in, you are without equal, barring perhaps the Samurai. Yet there are many areas you weren't trained in, including coping with varied environments."

The girls looked down, nodding weakly. Oh, how they had learned that lesson. Ashi reluctantly looked up. "Teach us?"

Ayami shook her head. "I can't. Not now, not with winter coming on. Comes the spring, perhaps, but winter's the worst possible time to start wilderness survival training."

The others nodded to that, though their understanding of seasons was still largely academic. "When we have consecrated our apartment as a temple," Adi asked, "would you and Akane like to come visit us for services?"

"A… temple? A real temple?" Ayami asked, eyes going wide.

"A real temple," she confirmed. "We already have an altar. It's small, but it's an altar, and we have appropriately coloured socket lamps. I'd prefer candles or torches, but…" she shrugged. "It's painted in black, the windows are red. It's very plain, as it should be. Though I have to admit, we've broken the discipline of the temple with sleeping mats instead of plain rock, and pillows on which to rest our heads instead of stones, and even a sleeping cover."

Ayami nodded. "The Temple's discipline, I found, is impractically strict for life in the greater world." Akane gaped at Adi's words, and her face grew sad and troubled. "What you've done is the minimum that most would call endurable. You will not weaken yourself with them." The sisters relaxed slightly to hear that. "And when it is consecrated, I would be pleased and honoured to share services with you. And I'm sure Akane will be just as glad." Akane looked decidedly nervous at that prospect.

Adi reached out her hand to her. "It will be fine, I'm sure. Aku is strict, but not cruel. If your faith is true, if you have done your best to follow His law, He will welcome you, and we will help." Akane accepted the offered hand, and tried to smile. "But sunset draws near. Would you like us to share prayers with you? Your shrine is small, but not too small," she offered, and Ayami's jaw dropped open.

"I would be honoured, Blessed Daughters!" she said in a voice filled with respect. "Go change, Akane," she said her voice once again cold, and she too disappeared into her room. It was not long until the two re-emerged, and Ayami opened the shrine and lit the lamps.

Adi nodded to her. "This is your shrine, Ayami. It is only right you lead the prayers," she said. Ayami protested briefly, but to no avail; Adi was firm, and Ayami, mask now in place, went to her knees, and led the service, Akane at her side. The shrine was indeed large enough for them all, but only barely, and the Daughters had to file out first at services' end. Ayami removed her mask, and her ramrod posture slackened very slightly, then she and Akane went back to their rooms to change again.


	9. Reunion

For several days, the sisters continued in this way: travelling the city, together and apart, sharing services with Ayami and her daughter, engaging in various contests at the Dome to earn money. Then the great day came. The day they had longed for.

Ayami came with the Daughters and her own child to the neighbourhood they called home. Still run-down, still poor, but becoming less decorated. The girls did not like gang signs. Inside the basement apartment, Ayami looked about, noting the cupboards without doors in the kitchen area, the small bathroom, the Blessed Children's bedding, and most importantly, the altar, with small incense burners to either side.

As Adi prepared for the ceremony, a knock came at the door. She continued with the preparations, and Aki went to answer the door. A soft gasp, and she turned to see a familiar figure. "Mother!"

Ami recovered first, and ran to her, taking her hand. "Please, come in!"

At the invitation, she entered, and the gigantic Rika, and another of the Daughters. Then their gaze fell upon Ayami, and the High Priestess charged at her as she drew her knife. Then she found herself jerked to a halt by a chain around her middle, and spun to face, "Ashi! How dare you interfere with Temple justice!"

Ashi's expression did not waver. "Death is the penalty for the apostate. But Ayami is not apostate! I know, for we have shared services with her! Her faith is weak, she admits as much, but she has not turned away from our Lord Father!"

"Please," Adi added. "We were about to consecrate this apartment as a temple, don't stain it with the blood of the guiltless."

"I have a lot of questions," Ashi said, "but they can wait. Please, Mother, we ask you to spare her. At least for now."

She struggled against the chain that encircled her, but the determination she herself had fostered was clear. "Very well," she agreed. "I will delay in carrying out the sentence." And the chain slackened. She stepped clear, and Adi stepped up to her.

"Please, Mother. I was about to consecrate this place as a temple, but…" and she held out a bowl, filled with incense. "These were the best we could do, without the Book of Aku to consult. Will it do?"

The High Priestess sniffed at the bowl. "It smells right. I will consult Anzu 12," and she produced from behind herself the Book of Aku. The others gaped, except for the child who just looked confused as the High Priestess flipped through the book, and sniffed the mixture once more. "Yes. There are some missing ingredients, but Anzu's list is very detailed, listing required and preferred and optional ingredients, and you've included all the needed and most of the preferred. An excellent job." She then went to inspect the altar and idol. "Yes… fine craftsmanship. Which of you found it?"

Aji bowed slightly. "I found it, and bought it with the earnings from our first night's fight. I thought it was worthy, and Adi agreed, but it's very good to know we were right."

The High Priestess turned to face her directly. "I am very pleased by your devotion. An excellent idol, a fine stand for its altar, suitable incense mix for its bowl, candles beside it. You have done very well indeed." She looked around the space, and gave a long look at the bedding. "You have broken Temple discipline."

Ashi had the sense to look abashed. "Yes, Mother. A little; living in the greater world has forced some small compromises upon us. Our bedding, the use of the cold box, foods unknown in the Temple but common here, the use of… Ayami, what are those called?" and she gestured to the lamps.

"Light bulbs, Ashi," she said, then after receiving Ashi's thanks turned to the High Priestess. "Candles and torches are very costly in the city, and very impractical."

Even though her mask, the glare was palpable, and Ayami felt silent. "Given your circumstances, I will accept these, so long as you do not further violate Temple discipline."

"We'll do our best," Ashi agreed, and the ceremony began. Akane turned out the lights, and the High Priestess lit a candle from the altar with her fire striker, then lit the second candle from the first, then the incense in the idol's offering bowl with the fire striker. Slowly, she and the others walked the apartment, six paces by sixteen, maintaining a steady, wordless, droning chant, a chant of three notes to make a minor chord, the deepest, in the mezzo-soprano range, from the High Priestess, Ayano, Ayami and Rika, then the sisters with the mid-range soprano note, and Akane in coloratura. When they had smudged the entire apartment, the High Priestess set the bowl back into the idol's lap.

The twelve knelt, and as the others repeatedly prostrated themselves, continuing their chant, the High Priestess spoke, hands raised. "O Lord Father, Master of Masters, Deliverer of Darkness, we beseech You most humbly to bless this sacred space to Your worship, to fill it with Your favour, and look kindly upon those who come here to revere You." She rose, stepped up to the altar, and removed her mask. She produced her knife, and pricked her chin, letting the blood drip onto the incense. "In token of our sincerity. I offer my blood to Your image, O Greatest of All, and to further sanctify the altar, I place within it this chalice, which still holds a bit of Your sacred essence," with which statement she opened the door in the front of the stand, set the bronze vessel within, and closed it. And she again donned her mask, then stepped backwards two long paces, and joined the chant. At length, she rose, and pronounced the ceremony done.

The others rose at her word, and she turned to face Ayami. "Apostate, you are still under sentence of death. But I will be merciful, and sentence you to the death of sleep. Further, I pledge that we will do all in our power to raise your daughter well, as a devout follower of Aku." She looked about herself. "Can any show just cause to dispute this ruling?"

"I can," Adi said. "I will prove that Ayami, though she turned from the Temple, did not turn from Lord Aku. If you will come with us, we can show you this proof."

"Very well," she said in her cold tone. "I will allow this."

.oO()Oo.

Soon enough, they were at Ayami's apartment. "Here is the first proof," Adi said, and opened the door to the shrine. Her mother looked it over, and nodded slowly. "We ourselves shared services with her. She willingly took an oath upon the idol, in which she swore that neither she nor her daughter meant us harm, and we gave her the same pledge. If you still doubt, think how Akane conducted herself during the consecration. Does she not know the forms and the chants? Does she not have acceptable prayer clothes? Would Ayami have taught her these things if she had turned from Aku?"

The High Priestess considered. "Ayami, you must swear upon the idol to speak only truth upon this matter. I will pledge to hear you fairly." And they did, after which the High Priestess' questioning of both her and her daughter began in earnest. At long last, she pronounced herself satisfied. "You are not apostate, and you have said that you are not a kidnapper. I forgive your weakness in fleeing the Temple. But your misguided attempt to comfort the Blessed Daughters must still be answered for. You may chose your punishment: My staff, or Rika's fists."

Ayami swallowed hard; both choices were bad, of course, but which was worse? "Let us take this to my room. This is not a thing to be done in a shrine." The High Priestess agreed, and in her room, Ayami drew the drapes, switched on a light, closed the door, and stripped. She knelt, back to her superior, and did her best to suffer the beating in silence. The High Priestess was feeling merciful, it seemed; she didn't even count two dozen blows before the order came to dress. She donned a heavy brown skirt and a thick, deep green blouse, then followed the High Priestess to the main room, where Akane had shown her well-trained manners in making and serving tea. The table was crowded with the enormous Rika taking up two full spaces, but Akane and the sisters were able to crowd up enough that they all fit; Akane had at some point changed from prayer clothes to a pair of faded blue pants and a deep red shirt with long sleeves.

"We have some questions, Mother," Ashi said once the late arrivals took places and cups. "How did you survive the blast that destroyed the temple? And which of the Daughters is this?"

The High Priestess held her tea but made no move to drink it. "I survived by Aku's power within me; Rika survived because of her being a heavy-worlder. Ayano received a miracle of Aku himself, but we are the only ones. Ours has never been a large order, but this is the smallest we have ever been since before the Temple was first founded."

"And now we are needed most, with the Last Battle approaching," Ayami added. The three masked faces snapped toward her, and she explained herself.

"Then it is well," said Ayano, "that we drank from the chalice, is it not?" And at Ashi's questioning look, her mother told the tale.

.oO()Oo.

Several days before.

The High Priestess groaned slightly in pain, pinned beneath a large rock as its weight pressed the life from her. She couldn't breathe, her ribs creaked, yet she managed to grip the floor with the darkness that sheathed her, pulling, pulling, the rock turning as she moved, until at last she was free enough to squirm away and stand. No light shone, no torch, not even an ember in the fire bowl before the idol. Working by sound and memory, she made her way to the gong, only to find it fallen. She listened, and faintly heard harsh, heavy breathing, a sound she followed, finding a sister's form beneath a great slab, by some wonder fallen in a such a way as to trap but not to kill. She put her hands beneath the upper end, and with all her might, heaved, a feat beyond any normal woman. Yet her need and her Lord's power in her gave her strength enough, and she could hear the other slide free before she let the slab drop once more. After the crash, they both heard a deep cry for aid, and as quickly as they could, make their way to the site.

A little fumbling and feeling found the problem: an entire nest of boulders and rocks, rocks they shifted one by one until a tiny landslide cascaded down as the victim rose. They listened very carefully, but heard nothing more, and all three knelt, praying to their Lord Father to receive the spirits of the fallen into His realm. Then they found an unfallen torchiere, and the High Priestess drew out her fire-starter to light it. As she'd believed, the great figure was Rika, her brutish enforcer, alive because of her heavy-world strength. And the other, she suspected. "Ayano?"

"Yes, High Priestess," her assistant said. "How did you survive the collapse?"

"By Aku's power," she answered. "And you, by His grace. Quickly now, we must find any others. Rika, carry the light," and the huge woman did as told. Guided by the High Priestess' sharp senses, they searched the Temple, finding only ruin and death. Somehow, the chalice was still upright, the Book of Aku had survived the blast with only singes, and the High Priestess vanished them, then they made their way to the kitchen, gathering as much as they could, including three cups, then the remains of the armoury, then the main entrance. Ayano only watched, while Rika cracked rocks with a great hammer, and the High Priestess hauled them clear. Against the heavy-worlder and their god's favoured servant, her strength was barely a child's, so she did the only thing she could: fetched a water barrel, then filled it bucket by bucket. She had no idea how long the excavation took, but when it was done, there was just enough room for Rika to struggle out into the starlit night.

The other two followed, and saw the ruin of the bridge. "No matter," said the Priestess. "We can climb down and up. It is is not so far." And so they did. "Now, to the ruined temple," and Ayano bristled slightly, "Know you a better shelter?" She shook her head, and they made their way to the abandoned structure, pausing at sunrise for the prescribed prayers.

In the kitchen her daughters had found, the High Priestess noticed faint marks at the pump's pivot, showing recent use, and Ayano pointed out the recent ash and the store of wood by the hearth in the dining hall. The three felt no real need for a fire just yet, and settled in for some much needed sleep on the tables near the hearth.

Just under three hours later, they woke, and they prayed, then slept and woke and prayed again, as the sun was rising. Then a simple breakfast of water and fruit leather and dried meat, and they went out to explore the angkor and its surroundings. When they came together again, the High Priestess spoke first.

"I found spoor, in a pattern suggesting the person was suffering from severe digestive upset. It was not animal, I am sure of that. Did you two find such signs?" They both nodded. "I found three such sites, and you?" She nodded to their answers. "Seven. My daughters were here, and learned they do not know enough to survive in the greater world without aid. But where would they go?"

Ayano felt her skin grow cold. "Perhaps… forgive me, High Priestess, if my thought offends you."

In her controlled, icy manner, the High Priestess answered. "Say on. If you say a needful thing, I will not punish you."

Ayano nodded to that. "They know of the apostate, and that she fled to the south. They might seek her out; we taught them to do whatever was needed to further their mission, and if they need to learn, they'd seek the only person they would know of who could help."

RIka produced an affirmative-sounding grunt.

The High Priestess gripped her staff tightly, then forced herself to loosen her grip. "That is… likely. At the least, they would think that south is a way to other people. Better to follow even a vague direction than none. Very well, we will follow the road south to the city; the girls will not be hard to find. We will start tomorrow night and follow the traveling prayer schedule."

They took another meal, sitting on the floor as they were accustomed, and as they sat, the High Priestess looked to her tiny congregation. She drew out the sacred chalice, and set it down. "You remember when Aku came to us, and what came after." They nodded to that. "There is not enough of His essence for that to happen again, but there is enough for each of you to take one long swallow and still leave enough for worship. I will guide you through the mastery of this gift." And the two did as told.

The rest of the day, they lay upon the tables, shivering and sweating, seeking to embrace and thereby control the power that beat and surged within them, and by the time of sunset service, were able to stand once more.

.oO()Oo.

"Aku's power now flows within us," Rika said, and the girl stared at the deep, smooth voice. "Yes, Blessed Daughters. I can talk, for His power has rekindled the fire of my mind. I am not brilliant, but I am no longer the near beast you knew." Ayami and the sisters smiled at that.

"On a practical level," Ayami said, "you'll need to find some sort of work. You can't live in the city without funds, and you need training in many skills; remember Asumi 24." The High Priestess nodded to that. "I know you're all mighty fighters, though not on the level of the Blessèd Daughters, but there's only so much work for fighting women. So you might want to look into other options. I'll need to consider the possibilities, speak with my agent. I'll have a few possibilities for you in probably three to four days, and I'll come to the Temple for sunset prayers."

"And me!" Akane said firmly.

Her mother smiled to her. "Yes, Akane, and you." To the High Priestess, she explained. "We follow the reduced schedule: Sunset, midnight and sunrise. The full schedule is unworkable outside of Temple life." After a bit more inconsequential talk, the ten rose, and made their way, somewhat awkwardly in Rika's case, back to their new Temple.


	10. Fundamentals and Celebrations

"You are no longer children," the High Priestess said once they were gathered in circle. "You have proved that you have the wisdom and the strength of will to be counted adults. And so, certain things will change. All your lives, we have eaten apart from you. Now, we will share our meals. It will be the same with sleeping: we will not set aside a special area just for us or just for you."

The sisters gaped at her. "You mean that we'll…"

She nodded. "You will at last see my true face. And those of Rika and Ayano. At our next meal, for eating and washing are the only times we will remove our masks in Temple."

Ashi could scarcely believe how her heart swelled at that; she felt, she felt, she had no word for what she felt. Her mother, their mother, finally counted them full adults, not children in need of training. "I look forward to it."

The High Priestess nodded to her. "It has been a long day and trying. Let up perform our devotions, then sleep." And so they did, sleeping soundly upon the concrete floor.

.oO()Oo.

The next day, they gathered to share breakfast, and the sisters gaped at their mother's bare face. She looked almost exactly like them! There were a few subtle differences, which they attributed to her being older, but they looked far more like her than Akane like Ayami. Ayano's face was longer, narrower, though from what they had learned, she would still be counted beautiful, and even the brutish Rika's face was surprisingly soft-looking, even delicate, in sharp contrast to her massive physique, and her skin was a strange, nearly shimmering grey. Unsurprisingly, it was Ashi who asked the needed question. "What are you?" she asked of the giantess, her tone one of puzzlement rather than challenge.

"My people are from another star," she answered. "A world were everything weighs much more than it does here. So my people are very large and very strong and very tough compared to Earth people. I was," and she trailed off, hesitating at how to express it. "I was one who fought for others' pleasure. I was hit in the head, very hard, and it hurt my mind, and I was taken far away and abandoned in the forest. I wandered, lived like a beast, until your mother's mother found me, and took me in. I was made part of the Temple, and put into the Pit of Shadows, and became the strong arm of the High Priestess. But when I drank a little of Aku's essence, it made my mind wake again."

"Would you like to learn how to read?" Aji asked her.

"Read?" she replied, and looked to the High Priestess. "If it pleases you?"

That one shook her head. "Reading is only for the most devout, a sacred mystery no other can master."

"But it isn't!" Adi quickly said. "We have all learned to read, Aji in less than a day! Test us, from the Book of Aku, or the cooking book over there!"

The High Priestess rose, and took the book on cooking, and brought it back. She flipped to a page with a recipe holding many strange words. "Read this," she commanded, and Adi read, slowly and carefully. "I did not think you were so devout as that! Oh, my daughters, I am so proud of you!" The she sighed. "But Rika is not ready for those mysteries."

"Mother, that's what Adi and Aji are telling you: reading isn't a mystery of Aku, it's just a thing you learn," Ashi put in, and her mother stood and raised her staff.

"You will recant your blasphemy immediately!" she demanded.

"No!" Ashi insisted. "I will not recant, for I have committed no blasphemy. We have all seen that people with no faith at all can learn this. If they could master it, then surely Rika can learn it! We will teach her ourselves if you will not!"

The High Priestess glared at her wayward daughter. Always the troublemaker, this one. "Very well. You will teach Rika to read. You will have six days, and if you fail, you will spend the six days following as her training dummy, and you will recant of your blasphemy!"

"Agreed," Ashi said instantly. "And I will pledge it upon Aku's idol." So the women did, Ashi that she would be Rika's training dummy for six days if she could not teach the giant to read, and the High Priestess that if Ashi succeeded, the accusation would be withdrawn. Then they finished their breakfast, and after they'd all cleaned up, Ashi and Rika sat down to her first lessons while the other sisters began the task of familiarizing their mother and her assistant with the city and how to live in it, so far as they knew how.

To read… Rika did not know if she had ever been able to do that, but she wanted to. To look upon the godsigns, and know their meaning… that was the greatest wonder she could imagine. And so she settled in with Ashi, patiently working through the signs and their meanings. By the time of the midday prayers, she was starting to get the general sense of the marks, and by the time the others returned and Ayami and her daughter came by to visit, she was definitely making progress, though she could not honestly call herself able to read yet.

.oO()Oo.

After the service, the sisters went to the Dome, and found to their delight that they'd been given a battle to fight. A coalition, seven of the best fighters in the Dome's stable. It would be a melee, no fixed pairs, just the Dark Stars against the Add Hawks, and oh, how they ached to really cut loose. As they stepped into the ring, a jumble of rubble and trash, they immediately spread out, leaping to wide-spread vantage points to spy out their opponents.

Ashi spotted hers before he could spot her: a creature with features somehow both extended and flattened at once, with black-striped white fur and a tail. A kunai flew, faster than any but she or her sisters could avoid… or so she thought. The creature twisted away with speed she could barely credit, and only Ashi's own incredible reflexes got her behind cover before the air itself caught fire. Behind the bricks, she drew out her bow.

Aki sprang from point to point, a streak of darkness not settling long enough to target. She'd spotted a little creature with pinkish scales and a very big weapon, and that one would be her target. She flung a bullet at it, and was rewarded with a blast of light that melted its way through the wall she'd been standing on not two instants before.

Avi disdained her preferred tactics of stealth and speed this time, reasoning their opponents would expect those; instead she picked her target, a green-skinned woman about two thirds RIka's size, in red boots and scant loin and chest coverings who carried a truly enormous axe. A pair of rocks as big as her own head served her for ammunition; the first, the woman struck aside with her axe, the second, hidden behind the first, took her square in the face, and Avi seized the opportunity to leap atop the woman's head and slit her throat with a kunai. A moment to look about and she was off to Aji's side.

Aji had no chance to choose a target; a creature of shifting, flowing, changing colours that seemed to consist entirely of waving, boneless appendages chose her, the appendages not supporting it holding very weird-looking weapons, ones whose shapes hurt her eyes to look upon. One of these, the thing swung in her direction, forcing her to run for cover from a shower of golden rings. She quickly scuttled up a column, hoping the creature wouldn't be able to perceive her through solid stone.

Vain hope, that; she heard a hiss and pushed away barely in time to avoid an explosion that tore apart the top of the column. Her guts turned cold in atavistic fear reaction and she ran for another bit of cover while the creature stalked her: of its multiple weapons, she'd only seen two and didn't even know what the ring-tosser actually did. She had to take this fight to her opponent, and so took a course she hoped would surprise it, running not to the nearest bit of cover but to the second-nearest, barely avoiding a beam of hot light that carved a furrow in the ground. Well, at least the tactic had worked. She produced her sling and a bullet, then a kneeling overhand throw produced a satisfying smack and she sprinted for another bit of cover, a section of wall, this time beating a stream of projectiles by less that a handspan. But she was closer now, and stood to launch a proper bullet at her opponent's likely location, and a shriek unlike anything she'd ever heard or imagined tore across her ears. A good sign, she hoped, and slapped the wall beside her with her left hand, then pivoted around that point to the wall's top, and sprang at the ball of appendages, producing her heavy chopping butterfly swords.

As she dashed toward her opponent, a second blur attacked from the side, Avi with her great kanabo. The creature swung two weapons toward her, and fired the ring-tosser. She twisted as she flew, and managed to mostly avoid them, but three struck her torso, and tried to pull together, bend her into a ball. She bent backward with her great club, then swung down hard, the pull of the rings lending the already mighty blow greater force, and a strike hard enough to shatter a granite statue's head split the gelatinous creature's central body open, and it keened fit to split their heads. But a lifetime of suffering had inured them to pain, and Aji's butterfly swords fell heavily upon what she guessed to be its brain and heart, and the creature went still.

"ENOUGH!" roared the announcer. "We have our winners, the Dark Stars!" and the crowd burst into cheers and howls even as the remaining fighters went to their knees in surrender. The sisters vanished their weapons, and held out hands to their foes. "Rise," Ashi said. "You fought well and bravely. Now go, and honour your dead as you see fit." The bested fighters accepted the gesture, and the two sides bowed to each other before withdrawing.

.oO()Oo.

"Weird kids," said the tiger-man, once back in the green room. "They're so… open? No, that's not right."

The surviving female fighter, a lithe bundle of whipcord and sinew under skin the colour of dark wood, nodded to that. "More like… accepting. They accepted that we were trying to kill them, they tried to kill us, two of us died, then the fight was over, and that was all that mattered. No grudges, no resentments, what we'd been doing honestly didn't seem to matter to them. It's like all they have is right now. Weird girls. Very, very weird."

.oO()Oo.

The girls in question collected their share of purse and gate, and on the way back to the Temple, made some quick stops. They let themselves in just before midnight, and bowed to their mother. "We have great news," Ashi said, and told the tale of the battle. "In celebration of our first kills of thinking beings, we brought these things for after our midnight prayers," and she gestured to the flat, square boxes and the slightly tapered cylinders Avi and Ari held. "Enough for a light meal after our devotions," she said, and after the packages were placed on the kitchen counter, they joined their mother and worship sisters in midnight prayers, adding to the normal adorations their thanks for the opportunity He had granted them.

Devotions complete, Ashi, Ari and Aki rose and went to the counter, where they opened the boxes, folding their tops back, then poured from the cylinders a liquid that resembled blood, filling their own cups, then the newly acquired cups, tall and tapered, red within and black without, they produced from their darkness. They laid the boxes with their odd discs in the centre of the circle they asked the rest to form with them. "We took the liberty of buying more cups, Mother, in Aku's colours. This food… we're not sure if it's acceptable under Temple rules, to be honest. But the foods we knew can be costly, and hard to find. And we've only just started learning to cook."

The High Priestess sniffed at the disc, and examined it carefully. "It is not… exactly… a violation of Temple law, but it is definitely a violation of our custom. I will permit it, as this is a sufficiently significant occasion, but do not repeat this." Ashi said she would not, and the others affirmed the same. "The cups please me, they are very appropriate to the Temple. Your cups are not, but they are yours by right, and I will not demand you cast them away. You have faced trials enough to be called Sisters of the Temple. You lost your mother, your trainers, your home, yet you rallied and held to your mission. You nearly died of your own ignorance, yet you rallied, and sought out the one person in all the world who could help you, despite the loathing you doubtless felt for her. You managed to adapt to a completely foreign environment, and track down Sister Ayami, for Sister she clearly is, however weak her faith has become. You were preparing to consecrate a new Temple, and how could I ask more than that?"

Ashi and the others beamed at their mother's praise. "Thank you," she said softly. "Do you wish to try this food? The drink is an amazing thing we have found here, it is called grape juice." And the ten enjoyed their light meal before returning to sleep.


	11. Last Rites

For three more days the sisters continued to work at the Dome, once more performing non-combat challenges, or combat challenges against robots or in exotic environments or both. Their mother and Rika largely returned to the routine of the Temple: eight daily prayers, sparring, meditation, while Ayano spend much time in exploring the city, and finding suitable merchants from which to purchase replacements for her Temple garments and for the High Priestess' robe. Then finally, Ayami came by early, before sunset services.

"I have news," she said after the usual pleasantries and after Akane had gone to the sisters to spar and play away from the other adults. "My agent's contacts suggested several possibilities for you three to make money without needing to travel far or take too much time from your worship. But… I'm not sure you'll like them. Especially you, Sister Ayano."

Behind her mask, The High Priestess' eyes narrowed. "Say on," her voice colder than normal.

Ayami drew from her jacket a folder, one holding many papers with images on them. "Here. Posing for photo sets like these will take about a day, two such sets in a month will provide a simple living." The images were strange, women or men or both wearing little to nothing, women engaging with men in activities that Temple law limited to specific occasions, men driving women like animals before the lash, or women driving men. "I know you'll reject some of these out of hand, but I was asked to bring them, and then take back word. In this, I am only a messenger."

The High Priestess glared even through her mask. "You are right," and she set aside all the ones with unclad or underclad women. "These would be against Temple law." Then she set aside the ones showing people driven like animals. "Ayano or Rika could take part in such, but it would bring disrepute to the Temple." She continued to turn through the images, then paused. "This, perhaps," and she paused upon coming to a somewhat different set. "Rika would be an acceptable subject for such as these." The pictures were of women with well-developed muscles performing feats of strength, usually but not always in highly revealing attire. "Keep in mind that she long ago became one with the Darkness."

Ayami gathered up the images, and tucked them back into their folder, then shed her outerwear, and Akane did the same, revealing their prayer suits, and in a converted basement apartment, before a store-bought idol, the last remnants of the Daughters of Aku performed their devotions.

.oO()Oo.

The next day, the High Priestess sent Ayano to Ayami's apartment to bear a message, and after stepping in, and sitting down for some tea, she passed the message. Ayami looked down, eyes lowered. "I don't remember the rites, I'll need a refresher. And Akane doesn't know them at all."

Ayano sipped her tea. "We will teach her. What troubles me is how to burn the offering in the new Temple. There will be much smoke, and how can we disperse it?"

"The fans over the stove and in the bathroom would be enough for that," Ayami told her. "The real problem is that you can't burn the offerings in the idol's little bowl," she said with a frown. Then she smiled. "But you could burn the offerings in mine's! Would the High Priestess be wiling to trade her idol and altar for mine? Mine's really too large for a mere shrine anyway. And I had it commissioned, it's not mass produced like the one you have, and the altar even has storage compartments to hold the sacred chalice!"

Ayano considered the question carefully. "I think she'd approve. Can we move it?"

Ayami rose, and opened the shrine's door. "See if you can pick it up. It's a bronze casting, and hollow." Ayano stepped up to it, looked it over, then turned to the former Sister.

"I'm a normal woman. I don't have Aku's power… oh, wait. I forgot, I do. I still don't think I can lift it, but I'll try. And if I can't, Rika certainly can." After considering the problem, she grasped the idol by its base and by its shoulder projection, strained with al her might, and set it down. She'd managed to rock it, but no more. "We'll need Rika. I can almost lift it, but only almost."

With those words, the two departed for the new Temple, going this time by bus. Ayano led the way once thy arrived near the building, and knocked, waiting politely to be let in. Once inside, they discussed their plan with the High Priestess. "I accept this. Only be careful to keep the idol from the hands of the profane."

"We will," Ayami assured her, "And I will carry the altar, and Ayano can guard us both." And so it was that the Temple gained a new idol and Ayami's shrine a smaller.

.oO()Oo.

When Akane returned from school, such as it was, she found her mother at the table, and herself gestured over. "We're going to the Temple soon, and we'll both need to eat and drink our fill first," her mother said in that cold "this is serious" tone she sometimes used, but not often.

Akane shivered. "A big, slow meal?" she asked, and her mother nodded. Akane rose and went to work carefully cooking a meal she knew would hold them both for a good while, at least half a day she was sure. She didn't make slow meals very often.

.oO()Oo.

When they were done and the apartment was sealed and put in order, they departed, openly clad in their prayer suits in public for the first time in Akane's life, and Ayami double-double-locked the door. Once they reached the Temple, Ayami knocked, and Avi let them both in.

"Greetings, High Priestess," Ayami said, and went to one knee as Akane did the same. "Ayano told you our need, I trust."

"Yes. And I will teach you what you need to know," and with that, she began to take them through the prayer for the dead. "This will be a long ceremony, for there are thirty-two dead to be mourned and tended. Akane, you will help Aji prepare the final meals, the meals we will send on to the departed." The girl nodded solemnly, and the instructions began.

As sunset neared, they all made sure everything had been made ready: the new idol cleaned and wiped down, and its altar, the windows shut and latched, the door locked and bolted. Then the High Priestess, Ayano, Ayami, and the Blessed Daughters, save Ari, began a droning chant while Ari and Akane prepared a simple meal of meat and nuts, which the girl put on a plater and took over to the idol. "Please, departed sister Asuna, may this final meal strengthen and comfort you, that you may enter into the realm of Aku. Accept it in the spirit in which we offer it," said the High Priestess as Akane put it in the offering bowl. The High Priestess poured a bit of oil over it, and lit it on fire, then Akane returned the platter to the kitchen, and with Ari, joined the chant.

.oO()Oo.

From sunset to sunrise, sunrise to sunset, sunset to midnight, they prayed, and cooked, and gave offerings to strengthen the departed, to give them the last bit of aid they could receive to help them into the realm of Aku. The Daughters wept openly, though silently and almost without expression, as did Ayami, and even Akane cried a little, though she had never known the departed. Perhaps the High Priestess and Ayano and Rika wept, but there was no way to know. At last, the final offering was burned, the final chants done, all the smoke drawn off, and the High Priestess decreed a rest, and time to sleep. Akane tried, but could not help whimpering, and her mother spoke for her. "Please, High Priestess. She's only a child, she cries around an empty stomach. Let her have something."

"Of course," the elder said, sounding a bit surprised. "I would never deprive her of needed food. Go, Akane, make a meal for yourself." And once Akane had departed for the kitchen area, "You did very well, and I thank you for your assistance. You have aided our faith greatly today."

Akane beamed at the praise, and after eating her sandwich, went over to her mother. "Thank you," she said to the High Priestess. "Sleep well," and her mother held her in her arms until they were all asleep.


	12. Raisings and Reprisals

After the sunrise service, Ayami and Akane returned to their apartment, and Aji prepared a simple breakfast of rice and pickled vegetables and tea. "Our apologies, for our weakness during the ceremony."

The High Priestess hesitated, briefly puzzled at that. "Your tears? No. The weak have no place with Aku, yet such grief as that must have some outlet, and your display was controlled and appropriate." The relief on their faces was clear. "And I have news you will find very welcome: After the sunset prayers, you will be raised to full Sisters, though you will not receive masks." Their faces lit with delight, dismissing the lack of masks as a consequence of their reduced circumstances, and they filed out of the apartment to resume their explorations. So many amazing places to explore, so many goods they'd never conceived of to learn about and examine. They still didn't quite have the nerve to try those theatre places, and it was entirely beyond them why some areas had little crowds of women wearing ridiculously minimal outfits just standing about. City people were weird! But with the steadily growing cold, they chose to seek out stores that sold clothes. Time to get some cold weather clothing; their darksuits weren't sufficient. And that meant they'd need to practice with them. Life was starting to look very complicated.

.oO()Oo.

At their first stop, the Dome, the girls sought out their handler to learn their schedule. That worthy didn't quite sneer as he passed over a paper. "Do try to remember these aren't combat events. I'm quite sure your opponents would appreciate surviving the experience," he told them, and only Ashi's signal to the contrary kept Ami from slapping him for the insult. They looked over the schedule in turn; those not looking at that stared at him, especially his neck, until he started to sweat.

Perhaps I shouldn't have said that, he was starting to think. He'd thought they were like fighting slaves, sheltered and lacking initiative outside their narrow specialities, but was starting to reevaluate. Perhaps it was time for the kid gloves? Happily, they departed quickly, schedule in hand, leaving him to pant and mop his brow.

.oO()Oo.

Back on the streets, the girls spread out and wandered, each finding different areas to explore: shopping areas, residential and business districts, parks and docks and even industrial areas. Only Ashi and Aji had curiosity enough for those places, and even they clung to each other as they tried to make sense of the vehicles and machines and noise and dust. They managed to keep their nerve, wandering and examining and trying to understand, until well past noon before they needed to take the first bus to somewhere else. They didn't care where, just anywhere.

Anywhere proved to be a shopping area, one they'd not seen before. Places to buy food, medicines, various small, badly made products, but unlike most, no clothes. They looked to each other. "We have to find our way back to the Temple, and I have no idea how to do that," Ashi admitted.

Aji looked down. "We need to find a map," she said with a sigh, here eyes wide, bright with tears she would not shed. And she knew her sister felt the same loss of centre, the same fear, as herself. Never before had they been in such a situation, with no clear or even approximate idea of where they were or how to get back to where they wanted to be, and even when they found a place with a view, they could only turn and turn, finding nothing familiar. The bus route had been so winding they'd completely lost track of their turns, and they'd failed to note the number of the bus they'd taken. Yet Aji pointed to the stop. "We'll go there. They might have maps," wonderful things, those, "and then we can find out which to take to get back to the Temple." They schooled their expression to stillness, then went down the stairs to the stop across the road.

The wait was fairly long, and the two spent the time looking at the people passing by, how they dressed, how they moved. Finally, a bus arrived, they went aboard, and collected one of the "rider guides." As the bus jounced along, the sisters tried to make sense of the map included, but found it necessary to debark when they came near a clear space. They simply sat cross-legged on the grass, trying to orient the map to themselves. With a lot of trial and error, by the time the bus had come by twice more, they finally narrowed their likely location down to something that seemed to more or less match, or so they thought. Aji traced the coloured line, then sighed. "I think this will get us near the mall. We want winter clothes anyway, so that should be the place to go, right?"

"So long as we're back at the Temple in time for services," she agreed. They crossed the street again to the bus stop, and not long after, another bus came by, and they boarded, disembarking as soon as they recognized the area. Feet were better than wheels, and the walk was short, only about a dozen short blocks, nothing to girls used to sprinting across caverns a hundred metres long.

They steeled themselves against the crowding and noise of the mall, and even then detoured around the structure to its far entrance, the one nearest the store they wanted, the very large one that reached many floors. The crowds were less bad within the store, and the two made their way to the third floor, where the signs said they would find what they wanted, if they'd read them right. Once there, they started looking through the racks and tables, taking their time. So many colours, so many sizes, at least the clothing was labelled to its use. As they looked through the selection, one by one their sisters trickled in, and they spoke in their private language.

.oO()Oo.

Not long before the sunset service began, the door opened and the High Priestess looked over to see seven bizarre figures step in, figures that seemed to be made of tubes joined to their own ends, then stuck together by their sides, each figure a different colour. She had to look for several slow heartbeats before she finally realized the figures were topped by deep hoods. "Girls?" she asked of them, and hands in thick gloves lowered heavy hoods. Green and blue and red, Ashi, Ami and Avi. White, yellow, purple and grey, Aki, Ari, Adi and Aji. They quickly shed their new outfits, and hung them on the heretofore unused hooks near the door.

Smiling slightly, they turned to face her. "We just bought them. We know they're impediments, and we'll need to train with them, but our darksuits aren't enough for more than short journeys in winter."

Their mother and Ayano and Rika nodded to that. "Very well," she said. "But do not ever forget your mission."

They bowed to her. "We do not, and will not." A slight nod, and the High Priestess lit the fire in the bowl. Ayami and Akane arrived barely in time, Ayano turned off the lights, and the twelve knelt in prayer to their Lord and Master, prostrating themselves repeatedly before the idol. After a suitable period, the High Priestess stood, and Rika turned on the lights, walking hunched over by necessity; the ceiling was not quite tall enough for the giant woman to stand comfortably.

The High Priestess turned her masked face to the little congregation. "I have a most important announcement. This Temple will now bear witness to the advancement of His Daughters. By both years and deeds, they have shown themselves to be women grown, and though we have no masks for them, I name them full Sisters of the Temple."

"How have they earned this?" Rika demanded, and Akane looked to her mother.

"Mommy, why did she ask that?"

Her mother smiled slightly. "She's supposed to. That way, the High Priestess can tell everyone why the new Sister should be advanced." Akane nodded to that, and the High Priestess spoke again.

"First, they are of age to be recognized, and they have been faithful servants of the Temple and of our Lord Father all their lives," she said first. "They lost their home, their mother, their trainers, yet did not lose their faith. They rallied, sought out food, water, shelter, and means to make fire. Did you yourself not see the signs?" Rika made an affirmative sound. "They then sought out the aid they needed, though they hated to call upon her. In the strangest place they could imagine, they learned to adapt to an entirely new way to live, and yet they kept their faith. They found the one they sought, and brought her into their number. At her advice, they have made plans to better hunt the Samurai, and fulfill their purpose. They have learned that they themselves are a sign of the Last Battle, and they have kept their faith and accepted this. If there is greater proof anyone could offer of her faith and her strength, I cannot imagine it. Does anyone doubt their worth?" None objected. "Then stand, my daughters." They stood, and approached her. and she touched each girl lightly with her staff. "I name you full Sisters."

All through the ceremony, their hearts had swelled with anticipation, and when they heard the recitation of their deeds, their mother's pride and praise, an unexpected warmth filled their spirits. They rose smoothly, and at the light touch of her staff, managed to stand a tiny bit taller. They thanked their mother, then knelt before the idol, then finally went to the Dome for yet another new contest, something called "To The Tune of." It promised to be interesting.

.oO()Oo.

"This troubles me, High Priestess," Ayano said once the girls were well away. "Is it wise to let them continue with this Dome business?" Her tone was respectful, but her body language troubled.

"It is needful," her superior answered. "We cannot be so self-sufficient as we were, we need money for food, shelter, warmth, oil, incense. They have a substantial established income, and though they have delayed their mission, it is for reasons I consider sound. They will winter over here, as the Samurai will most likely do elsewhere, and in the spring, will start to broaden their skills, then begin their search for the Samurai. This will not be a simple out-and-back as once planned, it might take weeks or months. Better they learn to deal with the greater world while still under our eye."

Ayano nodded. "Thank you, High Priestess." Rika said nothing; though her mind was healed, she had always been a quiet sort.

.oO()Oo.

The girls returned in time for the sunrise service. "Our apologies, Mother," Adi said. "Our contest tonight was very strange, and we had to do a lot of practicing. But we did perform our devotions as close to midnight as we could."

"It is enough," she said. "The nature of your mission requires a reduced schedule; Asumi 17 is clear on such things."

"Thank you, Mother," she said, and all of them joined in prayer before the sisters had a quick breakfast and settled in to sleep.

.oO()Oo.

They slept through the three normal daytime services, waking just in time for some sparring, more instruction of Rika in reading, and a quick meal before welcoming Ayami and Akane for sunset service, then another reading lesson. The learning temple was wonderful, the sisters were so glad they'd agreed to the simple pledge of membership. But it was time for another contest at the Dome. At least this was one they understood somewhat: something called "tumble dance." They weren't quite clear on how one combined dance and tumbling, but at least they were already proficient in the two arts.

.oO()Oo.

The next day was a day off, and just as well; Ashi needed to give Rika more lessons in reading, though she was almost able to to manage on her own, and all of them needed to practice with their snow suits. The bulky garments were a tremendous hindrance, and they'd shed them if possible before a fight, but that might not be possible. As they began, they quickly realized a great limitation: they had no practical way to access their weapons; to their surprise, their mother declared a halt to the session almost immediately.

"It is time you learned a new technique with your darkness." And she took up her knife, pushing it into her left forearm. They watched this without surprise or upset, for could they not do the same? Then she drew the same knife from her right forearm, and they gasped. "Yes. Anything you place within your darkness, you can remove from any point on its surface. So a moment to pull open the front of your snow suits, and you'll have access to your weapons. This will take a great deal of practice, but by now, I'm quite sure you can do it. So shed your snow suits and begin your practice." Rika too joined the lessons; with her mind once more awake, she wanted to master her darkness, and so it began. Explanations of the technique, demonstrations, and staff strikes when needed; the High Priestess was not a gentle instructor.

.oO()Oo.

And the evening and the morning were the fifth day, and on the sixth, after the sunset service, the High Priestess called Ashi to trial. "You stand charged with blasphemy, Sister Ashi. Reading is a sacred mystery only the most devout can master, yet you have claimed anyone can learn it. Prove your claim or suffer," she said, standing straight and rigid before the altar.

Ashi went to one knee. "Yes, High Priestess," she answered. "In Ayanami 7, there is written, 'humans err, but fact does not, and if the writings should say a thing is so when the facts say it is not, the writings are in error.' Rika is devout, but not so devout as you believe necessary to learn the god-signs, yet I have taught them her, and she has learned them. Choose a passage from the Book of Aku, and she will read it."

"Very well," the High Priestess said. "I choose Ayeka 12." And Rika went to one knee before the lectern that held the Book, and after searching, found the passage named.

"In the valley by the river, as the nights grew ever shorter, there I knelt before the waters, weeping from my violation. Armed with only faith and knowledge, took a stone from bed of river, ground upon it cutting edges," and continued with the tale of Ayeka's penance, how she crafted weapons from what Aku had granted, and though the recitation was slow, still it was clear that she was indeed reading.

The High Priestess remained impassive throughout the reading, then turned to the accused. "You have committed no blasphemy," and she raised her voice. "Let it be known from now on that all Daughters of Aku shall be taught reading, writing, and sums." And Ayami let out a sign of relief. That ruling meant that neither she nor Akane would be in trouble for being literate.

.oO()Oo.

Days came and went, the girls exploring the city and the High Priestess and Ayano mostly tending the Temple. Rika spent little time in the Temple, the ceiling being much too low for her comfort, instead mostly spending her days not posing for photographs either at the gym in heavy exercise or sparring practice, or at the library, exploring the vast world of literature. As promised, Ayami helped the girls in learning how to survive in the city, and also took them to the shore to learn how to catch fish, dig clams, identify edible sea plants, make fires from driftwood, and cook with those flames. The girls found driftwood fires utterly entrancing with their many-coloured flames, and the roasted seaweed surprisingly flavourful.

In the Dome, they faced a vast array of opponents in a truly bewildering array of challenges, from song contests to a weird combination of dance and swimming. Some challenges were easy, and they earned large purses; others were less so, and some just made their heads hurt, like the weird contest with the ropes and pits and carvings of food, or the one with the mats with coloured spots. Granted, that one was a good way to practice flexibility, but it seemed otherwise quite pointless.

.oO()Oo.

As they practiced fighting in their snow suits, Ashi suddenly stopped, and her mother's staff swung toward her head, only to get caught. "I just had an inspiration," she said, and pressed her arms to her sides, then put her hands around her arms and swept down, leaving them bare save for her darkness. "It's not as good as shedding them entirely, but it frees up our arms and lets us get at our weapons."

Her mother nodded. "A good trick." Finally her endless questioning of everything was proving itself useful. Removing the sleeves from their darkness would be a cumbersome process, but after the battle that wouldn't much matter. "Practice it." And the girls began to do just that.

.oO()Oo.

That night, after midnight, three figures crept down the stairs in near-total silence, their slight sounds inaudible through the walls and the heavy door. Beneath their coverlet, the girls slept soundly, then at the faint click of the door coming unlocked, came fully awake and produced kunai; Rika and their mother were only slightly behind, and Ayano wasn't even fully awake by the time the interloper kicked open the door and a kunai sprouted in his throat. The girls had seen guns before in the Dome, and Aki had acted upon the sight of one. Even as the body fell, Aki was on the second, Ashi a heartbeat behind to deal with the last. The men pinned against the walls, sword and sickle at their throats, the fight was over. "Tell us why you're here," Ashi growled. As the brute stepped out, "Or do you need Rika to persuade you?"

The one under Aki's katana very slightly and carefully shook his head. "We'll talk! Jo-Mo, he say to hit you, we get back on top! So, we figure get' em while they sleepin' an' Jimmy…" He glanced at the corpse.

"Tell Jo-Mo," Ashi hissed, "that he's not welcome. His people aren't welcome. Any kind of second try, and we kill you. All of you. And we have killed before. Have you?" He didn't answer, but his expression and body language made the answer clear. She and Aki stepped back, and the men fled. Rika casually tossed the corpse up to the sidewalk, and the three re-entered the Temple.

"You did well, Sisters," said their mother. "Now, remove the blood from the floor, and let us return to sleep." And so they did; the girls, as they normally did, slept through the service between midnight and sunrise, then after sunrise services, went out to explore, and to train under Ayami.

.oO()Oo.

"Sister Ayami, last night, men attacked us with weapons we've seen but don't know the name for. They throw metal pellets or bits of light, and we know they're very dangerous," Aji said after the sunset service.

Ayami considered a moment. "Guns. There are many kinds, they're quite common weapons and are easy to learn. If the High Priestess approves, I can help you select guns and other modern weapons for your mission."

The High Priestess nodded. "I approve. Under the circumstances, it is best you become familiar with such things."

She nodded acknowledgement. "Tomorrow morning, come to my apartment. I used to be a bounty hunter, I still have contacts in the field." Then she and Akane bade the rest polite goodbyes, and departed.


	13. The Power of the Pistol

At Ayami's apartment, the girls slipped out of their snowsuits. The snows hadn't yet begun, but the cold was too intense to endure with only their darkness for insulation. And around the table, the nine sat, and sipped tea while a "rain in the mountains" sound track played.

"The first thing you need to know about guns is this: they are threats. Even showing a gun is a threat in a way no other weapon is," Ayami said over the rim of her teacup.

Akane nodded. "Mm-hm. Even a pretend gun can scare people. Always keep your guns hidden until you want to use them."

Ashi smiled. "We can do that," and produced a kunai, then vanished it.

Akane's jaw dropped. "How do you do that?"

Adi took the question. "Through our darkness, we have power to do things nobody can normally do. We can place objects in it, and retrieve them. We can cling to any surface that can take our weight. And Mother tells us that after we've mastered our current technique, she'll show us how to extend and shape the darkness to make claws." She looked down, voiced freighted with sadness, "You'll never be able to do this. The Pit of Darkness is lost now, we and Rika and Mother are the last who will have this link to the darkness."

"Oh," Akane said, her voice small.

Avi spoke next. "Ayami, what's a bounty hunter? You said you used to be one."

"A bounty hunter," she said, "is someone who tracks down others for money. Sometimes a bounty needs to be captured, sometimes killed. They can be people who have done great harm, or simply people who've chosen to flee from obligations."

"Is the Samurai a… bounty?" Ari asked.

I thought they'd ask that. "Yes, with an extremely high price on his head. But every bounty hunter who's gone after him has failed, sometimes fatally. Single, pairs, even teams. Once, a team of the six greatest bounty hunters of their time tried to take him out with a coordinated ambush; they were lucky to survive. The samurai never kills his opponents by intent, so far as I've heard; if a hunter surrenders or flees, he'll allow that, or if she's out of the fight but still alive, he'll accept it."

Ashi sipped her tea. "That's important to know. Thank you, Ayami."

"Are you going to get guns? Can I come with you? Can I get a gun too?" Akane asked, eyes bright and voice eager, and her mother smiled to her.

"Yes. You'll old enough now, I think, to be trusted with one." She looked over to Ashi. "Her training's not on your level, of course, but she's still pretty good." And Akane beamed at the praise. Ashi simply accepted the statement. After the tea was done and cups and pot washed, they took a bus to a weapons supplier, and Ayami told them a little about guns in general on the way.

.oO()Oo.

Aki stepped up to the man behind the counter. "Good afternoon," she said. "We're not really sure what we're looking for here, perhaps you could help us?"

He smiled, without the odd twist they'd seen so often on men's faces when addressing them. "I can try. Obviously you're here for guns, but what applications do you have in mind? Close up, long range, holdout? How much stopping power do you need? And if you're planning to travel, will you be able to get more ammo?"

"Well… we'll probably be spending a lot of time in the wilderness, away from anywhere we can get more ammo, so that's definitely something we need to think about. And we want quiet weapons."

The dealer thought. The girls were pretty small, better stick to the light stuff. "Let's see… " He unlocked a case of pistols, taking out a white, glossy gun with a bright orange stripe down the side. "This is the Helmson and McKendrick BE-53702 neuronic frequency stun gun. Guaranteed to take down any vertebrate human-sized or smaller in one shot. I don't buy it; I think two shots. Bypasses most armours. Seven shots in the cell, takes about six hours to recharge, depending on the power source. Very good non-lethal weapon."

Ami picked it up. "It's very light, it feels a bit flimsy."

The dealer grinned. "You're right. But the shell is a boron-matrix composite, you'd need a cold chisel to crack it. It'll hold up. And if it gets dirty, a little dish soap and a rag will have it looking new in a minute."

She looked to Ashi, expression questioning. The other glanced to Ayami, then at her approving look, nodded. Ami put it down. "I'll take it, and three cells. How do I charge them?"

"With a charger. There's all kinds, but maybe we should see what your sisters get before I give advice that way."

They nodded as one, and Adi spoke up. "I want something more lethal. Something that could kill a large animal, or large person. Preferably not too heavy." She was thinking in terms of someone along the lines of, well, Rika.

He nodded again. "Well, there's a few options. I've got laser weapons, plasma guns, electrolasers, all kinds of slug throwers. But if you're away from civilization a lot, I'm guessing you'll want an energy weapon. Good choice might be an electrolaser: pull the trigger, low-powered laser ionizes a path through the air, then an electrical discharge follows the path. Instant lightning, even if it doesn't kill it's pretty much sure to at least impair. This one's the DeLameter EES-606. Not too great against most armours, to be honest, but it's great for unarmoured opponents. Six shots a cell, takes about ten hours to recharge." He puled a streamlined, glossy black weapon from its display case and laid it on the table, letting her pick it up. "Again, it's a pretty light weapon, but it's made of seriously tough stuff."

She picked it up, running her hand over it in a decidedly possessive way. "I like it. I'll want four cells." She set it down, and turned to the sister with her bangs cut in an arc. "Aji, what about you?"

She looked over the selection. "We'll want a high degree of tactical flexibility, and we need quiet weapons. So I'll want something different from the electrolaser and stun gun. Something good against armoured targets."

The dealer considered, and pulled out a long matte-grey weapon with a fluted barrel. "You might want this, then. Reynolds MC-23 laser carbine. Melts most armours, inflicts really messy injuries on living things. Six shots a cell, about five or six hours to recharge." He set it down, and looked around the store. "For quiet… that's about all I have. The rest are mostly slugthrower types, chemically propelled and loud. Now, you're going to want a charger. With three different guns, and I'm thinking ten cells total, you'll want a four-barrel with eight extra slots. Solar panels, heat exchanger, and a wall plug. Maybe a vehicle adaptor. It needs to be rugged, am I right?" A nod in unison. Man, that was creepy. "Right. I have just the thing. This is just what you need: The Elphinstone 4DX," and he brought up an image on what looked like a pane of framed glass. The girls' eyes widened at the sight. "The real prestige one is the Fesdam 22C, but honestly, you're just paying extra for the name. It's for people who want to impress their friends, and I don't think you much care about that."

"Function matters more," Ashi agreed. "We'll take them. And three extra cells for the… carbine. We'll need somewhere to practice with them, you know such a place." He conceded that, and told them where to find a range. "And where we can find less sophisticated weapons? I use a bow."

He grinned. These girls were the kind of customers he liked: they knew roughly what they were looking for, and knew when they'd found it. "Those are just display models, I'll put them back and get you the real ones." He did so, disappearing briefly into the back and coming back out with three guns in boxes and three sets of cells. "Don't worry about putting the wrong cell in the wrong gun; they'll only fit the right guns. Now I just need to get the charger." Another short trip to the back. "What about a gun safe? You have somewhere to keep them?"

Aji smirked a little. "We have very safe places to keep them."

"Gunbelts?"

"No need," she assured him. "We have our own methods."

He considered that, then shrugged. There were a lot of strange things in this world, and clearly these girls were among them. "Your choice. Now, let's ring those up. I should tell you, the power cells are too low to use. You can see why, I'm sure."

Aji nodded immediately. "We can." The bill was totalled, and Ashi paid the man.

Akane stepped up when the sisters stepped back. "I need a pistol."

That got a raised eyebrow from the counterman. "Really? You want a real pistol?"

Akane nodded solemnly. "My mother says I'm ready to start learning to use guns properly," and at the man's questioning glance, Ayami nodded.

The counterman's demeanour completely changed and in a serious tone, he said "All right. You want a pistol, do you know what kind? Obviously, it needs to be small and light, with minimal recoil since you don't have a lot of mass to soak it up. So that means an energy weapon. Does quiet matter to you?" She shook her head. "Right. So, how about the kind of stun gun I just sold to your friend?" Akane looked over to her mother, who shook her head.

"I think a laser pistol and an extra cell. And a gunbelt and a charger. Mommy has a gun safe already." The counterman nodded to that, and brought up several laser pistols, ranging from one nearly as long as Akane's forearm to a snub-nose barely as big as her fist. She chose the long one. "I want something I can grow into," she said, and the counterman smiled. Ayami paid for her daughter's pistol, Ashi paid for the sisters' purchases, then it was on to acquire her arrows, Ari's shuriken, and Avi's throwing axes. Explosive arrows… what a thought.

The firing range seemed strangely short, but Ayami reminded the sisters that most firefights were at distances much shorter than the range allowed. At her suggestion, they deliberately lowered the output of their weapons to get more out of their cells. They sat in the lounge while their cells quick-charged, and discussed the basics of their guns' usage.

"Remember," Ayami said to Akane, "a gun's just like any other weapon."

Akane nodded, expression solemn. "Yes, Mommy. Never ready a weapon unless you're ready to kill someone, or to be killed." The sisters nodded to that. Good to see she'd learned that lesson.

Ayami looked over to them. "I didn't dispute your choice of a stun gun, Ami, because I'm sure you've long since learned that lesson bone-deep." Ami just nodded. She had indeed learned it long since.

The partial charge was enough for them to start on, but to their great surprise, after dinner Ayami took them to the outskirts of town, a bus stop so remote it was only marked by a pole and a single, run-down looking convenience store, and from there, she led them further out, away from the shore line. She pointed to a mid-range tree. "Akane, adjust your pistol for maximum aperture, minimum duration. Then fire on that tree." The girl did as asked, all of them keeping one eye shut. The shot didn't burn a clean hole in the tree, but blasted a pit in the trunk as wide as Akane's wrist. She stared at the hole, then at her pistol, then after checking the safety, returned it to its holster. "That is the power of the pistol. It's why a gun is seen as fundamentally different than a bow or a knife." She just nodded weakly, and they returned to the stop, deep in thought.


	14. Faith and Friendship

They were only just in time for Ayami and Akane to change for the sunset service, and after mother and daughter departed, the High Priestess questioned the girls carefully concerning their weapons choices before approving them. Finally, they were allowed to set up their weapons' charger before they hurried to the Dome, where they faced the Leaping Waves again in a monkey bars contest; the Daughters won, but only by a little, and after the match, the Waves congratulated them, and shook their hands, and then to their utter bafflement, their leader said to Ashi, "Want to join us? We're heading out for a bite."

Ashi just stared. Treating an opponent as if she were… were what? A Temple sister perhaps? It was something like that, she guessed, but why? Better not to ask. "All right… but we have to be back at our apartment by midnight for services."

She frowned in puzzlement. "Services? What do you mean?"

"Well, our mother is the High Priestess, of course we attend regular services: Sunset, midnight, sunrise, noon if we can."

The Waves looked between each other, clearly baffled at that. "High Priestess? There aren't any temples or even shrines around here."

"There are," Adi said. "Well, there's one: Mother recently consecrated our apartment."

One of the other Waves waved it off. "We'll ask later. For now, let's get some food," and after getting changed, into loose pants and fluffy shirts, they led the girls to yet another eatery with strange food, sausages made of meat ground impossibly fine, served between long pieces of split bread, topped with various things they couldn't identify, with little bits of something else they couldn't identify on the side, and a peculiar fizzy drink, very sweet. The Waves answered their questions about the things served atop the sausages as best they could, and the girls settled on the plainest sort available. After their orders arrived, one of the Waves looked to Adi. "You said your mom consecrated your apartment as a temple?"

She nodded. "We used to have a wonderful temple, high in the mountains to the north. But the Temple came under attack, I don't know why, and only we survived, or so we thought. We were in the city for a few days, then learned by some miracle, Mother and her assistant and one other Sister had survived. But what is a priestess without temple or altar?"

The Waves looked to each other. "Why would anyone attack a temple?"

"I don't know," Ari said. "Our order was cloistered, we lived apart from the greater world as much as we could, our lives were built around worship."

"So you lost everything?" the youngest-looking of the Waves asked.

They remained stoic, but their eyes welled up. "We were less than four dozen strong, and now we're only twelve, and that only because one Sister left the temple long ago, and she raised her daughter in the Faith, and we were able to find her and bring her into the fold once more," Ami told them.

The Waves looked to each other, and nodded. "Sounds like you need some friends. Well, maybe after your next match we can bring you over to my place," their leader said.

The sisters looked to each other, confused by the strange offer. What was a "friend?" Something like a Temple Sister, it seemed. "Very well," Ashi said at last. "And thank you." The Waves carried the bulk of the conversation, the sisters' lives having left them with little in the way of things to talk about, and the girls returned to the temple just in time to shed and stow their snowsuits without needing to hurry before services began.

.oO()Oo.

They spent several days in much the same way: training with their new weapons, maintaining their existing skills, prayer services, and contests. Then they faced the Waves once more, and after a marginal win, were again invited to their leader's apartment. They accepted, and found it to be in a fairly distant but very quiet neighbourhood; the building was fairly small, but it looked very nice, with floors of wood. The apartment itself was strange to their eyes, with five chambers partitioned off for sleeping, for bathing, for cooking, and for eating and other activities. It made no sense to them, why the need for the partitions? They didn't ask, not wanting to show their ignorance of city ways, but couldn't help wondering.

In the main room, the Waves and the sisters managed to find places; the room was crowded, even with Aji, Ami and Ari sitting high up on the wall. The Waves' leader, Kuri, stared at the three. "Um… how are you doing that?" she asked of them.

Adi looked over to her. "When we were but children, our mother made us one with the darkness," she said in a reverent, almost ecstatic tone. "That is what covers us, the living darkness, and through it we have a tiny fraction of our Lord Father's power." The Waves looked to each other, eyes wide in what might be fear. But why? What was fearsome about their darkness?

Kuri spoke, in a very small voice. "Um… who's your lord father?" she asked, voice shaking slightly.

"Who else?" she asked, genuinely bewildered. "Who else is Lord and Master of the world?"

The Waves reach the same realization at almost the same moment, and pulled away as best they could from their guests, eyes wide and skin cold in utter terror. "Please don't hurt us…" one of them whimpered, and Ashi answered with soft words and a very confused look.

"Why would we hurt you? You're not a danger, you've committed no crime against Him."

Most of them whimpered, and closed their eyes, only Kuri and Yazu still daring to look at them. "Like what? What kind of crime?" Kuri managed to squeak out.

Adi answered that. "Heresies, blasphemies, desecration of His temple or idol, apostasy."

"Um… we haven't committed anything like that, have we?"

Ami shook her head, and spoke in what he hoped was a soft, reassuring tone. "Of course not. You're not of the Faith, so you can't be apostate, and you've never committed any heresy or blasphemy that we've seen, and you can't desecrate a temple you've never even seen."

They nodded slowly to that. "Wh-wh-what about the ones in the Dome? The ones who were trying to kill you?"

All seven of them laughed at that. "Please. The Daughters of Aku are a militant order; we prepare for the Last Battle that will end the old Law and bring the new Law," Avi told them. "Fighting us isn't a heresy or a crime, it's not even a minor sin. As long as you have a sound reason."

The Waves relaxed slightly. "So… we don't need to be scared of you?"

"No," Ari said, her tone casually dismissive. What a silly idea, scared of them. They were only dangerous to the Samurai or his followers, or to people who tried to hurt them.

Very, very slowly, the Waves relaxed. "You grew up in a temple. Have you ever heard about television?" They shook their heads. "Well, it's a way to see things that are far away, or happened long ago, or things that… oh, man. How do I explain this one? Do you know about fiction?" That got a blank look. "This is going to be hard. Sometimes, people will act like they're doing things they're not really doing," and Yazu watched for reactions.

Aji smiled in understanding almost instantly. "Like the Temple dances, where we re-enact parts of the lives of Daughters past."

"Yes, like that," she agreed. "But more elaborate, and sometimes, what people act out never actually happened, it's just something to amuse and entertain." That prompted puzzled looks. "Let me try something simple." She did something with a rectangular object, and a larger rectangular object lit up. "This is called a cartoon, drawings that change very fast so they seem to move."

The sisters watched in amazement. The pictures really did seem almost alive, and they watched as people in bright clothes came together and planned and fought and drove off a great monster. Much of it was unclear to the girls, and they weren't quite sure why the strange vehicles were needed, since the people in the bright clothing all but destroyed the monster without them, but it was still an interesting and mostly enjoyable experience.

"So what do you do to pass time?" one of the other Waves asked.

"Many things," Ari answered. "Training and practice, meditation, prayer, songs and dances. Right now, we're mastering guns, and we recently learned to read."

Yazu did more things with the object, and the large rectangle lit again. "This is karaoke, it's a way to learn new songs or practice ones you know." She made the writing change very quickly, then odd images started began to move across the screen. "This one's simple, and it's good for a large group. Just sing along when the lyrics change colour." The word "play" turned yellow, and the sounds of instruments began. When the lyrics came up, the sisters sang with the Waves. "Step we gaily, on we go, heel for heel and toe for toe," it started, and they tried to keep up. By the end of the song, the girls were hopelessly confused and had just given up, their eyes down in dejection.

"What's wrong?" Kuri asked. "That's an easy song."

Ami looked up to her. "It is…. but it's so strange! It's nothing like the Temple songs." She looked over to Adi, "Could you lead us?" And Adi did so, leading them in a sonorous, solemn, almost dirge-like song of praise and worship. By the time they were done, the Waves were clinging to each other, eyes wide and tearing.

"That's… kind of scary. You grew up on those?" Yazu asked, her tone clearly hoping for a no. But she got a nodded yes from all seven. "Yeah, let's try this again," and started the song playing once more. "Try to sing the way we sing," and the girls did their poor best. Again and again until they gave up.

"We need to go, we still have services to attend," Ashi said. "And we've made all the progress on this we can for tonight. If you like, we could come tomorrow? Just after sunset?"

Kuri smiled brightly. "Sure!" and with a certain amount of confusion, the sisters managed to file out of the room and the apartment.

.oO()Oo.

"You sure about this, Kuri?" asked Sulka, and their leader shook her head.

"No. But I think we're better off getting in good with them," she said slowly. "They're crazy Aku worshippers, but I'd rather deal with Aku worshippers who like me than Aku worshippers who don't. Especially since we're going to be going up against each other again."

"Yeah, and you got a habit of taking in strays," Yazu quipped.

Kuri looked a bit embarrassed. "Well, yeah… and can you name me any strays who need taking in more than they do?" They couldn't, and before they all went to their own apartments, they shared hugs and kisses. Yazu, Kuri and Sulka prepared for bed, undressed, and slid into the larger of their two beds, where they cuddled in a warm little pile under abundant blankets and covers.

.oO()Oo.

In the Temple, after the services, the High Priestess swept her gaze over the sisters. "Something troubles you," she said, and Ashi nodded in agreement.

"After our contest, the Waves invited us to come to their apartment, and we accepted. But when they learned we worship Aku… Mother, they were afraid of us! Why would they be afraid of us? They thought we might kill them!"

The High Priestess sighed heavily. "There are stories of little churches like ours that kidnap people and give them as offerings, or torture them and make offerings of the pain and blood, or other, similar horrors, stories helped by the fact the Samurai is a great deceiver, and has convinced all the world that he is good and Aku is evil itself. Further, the Samurai frames his destruction and devastation as liberating people from Aku's cruelty." Ashi made an interrogative sound. "If, for example, a settlement is rebellious against Aku, He would send his minions to destroy it if the people do not surrender."

"Of course," Ashi said and her sisters wordlessly echoed her agreement.

"When that happens, the Samurai might appear, lay low the minions, and claim that he has protected the settlement from Aku's evil and freed them from his tyranny."

The girls spoke in their private language, then nodded. "We'll keep our faith private from now on," Adi said, and their mother nodded approval to them.


	15. Necessary Sins

At Ayami's suggestion, the girls had stockpiled canned goods and dried food almost since they'd first moved in. Winter was the busiest time at the Dome, but it was also when supplies into the city were least reliable. As the snow built, the girls noticed strange decorations appearing throughout the city, ribbons of blue and silver, little displays in shop windows, and asked her about them as they sat cross-legged on the floor after a sunset service.

She sighed heavily. "This is how most people mark Winter Solstice, what we call Long Night. It's a time of feasts and celebrations, to keep the powers of evil at bay when they are at their strongest." And they regarded her with total bafflement.

Their mother took up the thread. "Though Aku is born of darkness, He is not the only thing of darkness. There are also many noxious, dangerous and evil spirits that are strongest in darkness. Our ceremonies kept them from the Temple, but here, from what Ayami says, people use other means to keep them off."

"Yes," she agreed. "Great meals called feasts, special songs, the placing of idol-like carvings that symbolize the things the powers of evil do not want to be near. Akane and I have a collection of such, and the very rich even set sacred trees within their homes and decorate them with various amulets and small idols for very strong protections. You might see some in the shopping centres, provided by wealthy merchants, or by less wealthy merchants sharing the cost."

"But why?" Adi asked. "You're of the Faith, why do you need these idols?"

Ayami sighed heavily. "Because… we are only two, and Akane is still only a child. I give Aku what reverence and offerings I can, but the proper ceremonies of Long Night, no. We simply cannot perform them." The High Priestess acknowledged that, even as Akane put her legs around her mother's waist and hugged her.

"You will be welcomed here on Long Night. You observe the fast, of course."

"Of course, High Priestess. It's almost all we can observe. And we will be here for Long Night," she promised, before she and Akane departed for their own home.

.oO()Oo.

After the sisters were asleep, Ayano addressed the High Priestess and Rika. "She raises a problem: with only twelve of us, only two adults not one with the darkness, how can we provide the normal offerings?"

The High Priestess considered the question. "We must give all we can; He will accept that. This will be hard on you, Ayano, and on Ayami, but most of all on Akane. Still, best her weakness be purged now. The weak have no place with Aku."

.oO()Oo.

After another contest, one not with the Waves, the sisters met them in one of the so-called "green rooms," and again followed them to Kuri's apartment. After simple pleasantries and the offering of hospitality, they gathered again in the main room, with the sisters taking places on the floor and walls.

Kuri looked around; she doubted she'd ever really get used to seeing that. But she glanced to Yazu and the set, and she took the hint, loading up the song from the night before. This time, the performance was rocky, but much better, and again, they went over and over it, the sisters improving every time, and by the time they called a halt, the result was almost passable. Yazu cued up another song, one that the sisters might find easier to handle. They were incredible fighters, so maybe some kind of war song. Drums rolled, pipes rang out, and the lyrics came up. "Oh, axes flash, broadswords swing, shining armour's piercing ring…" and the sisters threw themselves into the song with a fervour that was almost scarier than knowing what they could do in a fight! Yazu cued up another song, another song of conflict, but one more heroic, more uplifting. "Along the midnight road they ran, along the broad and gleaming span… "

The sisters smiled, and threw themselves into what they took to be a fanciful tale of a successful resistance against a minion of the Samurai; unprompted, Ashi took the solo part, the rest taking the chorus with surprising smoothness. When the song was done, Yazu chose a third, and when that was done, looked to Ashi, asking where they'd learned to sing so well. Since the Waves already knew of their faith, there was no reason to dissemble. "In the Temple, we learned to dance the sacred dances and to sing the songs of praise. 'Good enough' is never good enough for our Lord; only our best is a fit offering."

"I… see," Yazu said. "So whatever you do, you need to be the best?"

"Of course! In battle, any mistake is certain death, and death is our failure." It was a solid statement, a plain fact to her, given no great weight.

Yazu shuddered. What a way to grow up. "So, how long has your faith been around?"

Adi answered that. "About three thousand years. We're a small group, from as few as twenty to as many as a hundred. But now…" and she looked down, eyes bright with unshed tears. "We have a new temple, but it's not a very good one. We have an idol, but it's nothing compared to the great idol at our old temple, and living in the city means living and working entirely for our Lord is impossible, we need to work for others as well. Unless something changes, this will be the end of us."

Sulka stood up, and put an arm around her shoulder. "That sounds pretty rough. But at least you still have an idol and a temple. You haven't lost everything, and maybe you can still find a way to rebuild."

"Maybe," she sighed, and Ari sidled along the wall to hold her from the opposite side.

Another of the Waves slipped out to fetch some drinks, returning with a large platter filled with small cups from which rose a tantalizing and completely unfamiliar scent. The sisters each took a cup, as did the Waves, and sniffed cautiously at it.

"It's called cocoa," Yazu told them. "It's served hot, and it's totally appropriate to sip it carefully." The sisters did so, and their eyes went wide at the amazingly rich, sweet taste; only a lifetime of strict discipline and scant pleasure let them savour it, stretch it out. It was so amazing, so completely unlike anything they'd ever tasted before, they could find no words.

The Waves smiled at their reaction, and gave them time to just enjoy the new drink before Yazu put on another action show, carefully checking that it didn't involve samurai, much less the Samurai. This one was set in a city, and involved a martial arts master seeking to recover his stolen girlfriend, and by the end of it, the sisters were laughing out loud. Their commentary on the movie had been a bit surprising: the girlfriend's helplessness hadn't bothered them in the least, but they'd had some very biting things to say concerning the mob soldiers' fighting skills and the hero's tactical acumen.

"Are things like this real?" Ashi asked.

Kuri made an odd gesture. "Sort of. Criminal groups sometimes kidnap people to force others to comply with their wishes, but they don't often try that with people who fight like that, not that many people can."

Avi laughed at that. "Imagine if someone tried to kidnap Akane!" and the others giggled. The Waves just looked puzzled. "Akane's the daughter of a former Daughter of Aku. Her mother's trained her well." The Waves shivered a little at that. A little girl version of these girls? That was terrifying. "Thank you for having us," she said. "We look forward to the next time," and they carefully filed out the room and the apartment, then made their way back the Temple in time for midnight service.

.oO()Oo.

While they were with their new friends, their coreligionists talked. "I do not like this," Ayano said. "They should pursue their mission, not engage in this frivolity."

The High Priestess nodded. "I understand your feelings. I do not like it, but we must accept it. They will need to travel in cities as they pursue the Samurai, will they not?"

"True," Ayano said with a near sigh. "But I still do not like it. How do we know they will not lose focus, especially Ashi?"

"We must do our best," Rika said in her deep, rich voice. "Aku demands that we always make ourselves better, and that we always give all we can, but He does not demand we give more than we can." She sat cross-legged, unlike her superiors. "Have they grown weaker?" The others shook their heads. "It may be that in this place, Ashi's endless questioning is a good thing, or at least useful."

"Perhaps," the High Priestess conceded reluctantly.

.oO()Oo.

Back in their leader's apartment, the Waves spread out in the main room. "I don't know if I should be more scared of those girls or more sorry for them," their leader said slowly. The others murmured their agreement, then the team slid into a pile, holding each other close; Yazu put on some slow, soft music, and the girls slowly relaxed enough to head home or head to bed.

.oO()Oo.

At Ayami's apartment, the sisters gave their help in setting up the protective icons of the time surrounding the Long Night, and Ashi and Adi and Aji were all filled with questions. Akane giggled a bit at some, but she and her mother did their best to field the questions. "These are animals called birds, you can tell birds from all other animals because they walk on two legs and have feathers covering them," Ayami told them, and she went on to explain the meaning of the doves and their nest.

"And this a baby, with its mommy and daddy," Akane said as she set up a little scene of a man and a woman in simple clothes, bending over a piece of furniture about waist high. with curved sides, holding blankets and pillows and what they presumed to be a baby.

Ashi looked it over. "What has a 'daddy' to do with a baby?"

"And is that how babies are normally kept in the greater world?" Aji continued.

"What do you call the thing it's in?" Adi asked.

Akane gaped at them. "A daddy helps start a baby inside a mommy," in a tone of disbelief. "And most daddies help to raise the babies they start. The baby's in a cradle, and that's where most mommies and daddies keep very little babies, ones too little to move around."

"I don't think we had those," Ashi said, and Ayami confirmed that.

"They had no cradle, no pillow. Only light blankets, and that only when they were very young indeed," she told her daughter, who gaped, then looked at the girls with downturned mouth.

"That's so sad," she said, and gave Ami an impulsive hug.

Ashi looked to Ayami. "What did Akane have?"

"A simple cradle, a light blanket, though warmer than the ones you had, a proper pillow. When she was old enough, I bought for her proper futons. Light, and thin, like mine, but warm enough."

The girls nodded. "Our mats and pillows and cover are enough for us. And we've bought them for the others, and a pair of futons for Mother. As High Priestess, she's entitled to that."

Ayami smiled. "I'm glad to hear that. You need to be strong, but you deserve some comfort too. Was it hard to find bedding for Rika?"

"Very," Ari admitted. "We finally found a store that caters to off-worlders, and bought it there. She has a mat, pillow and cover in her size." They were actually property of the Temple, but who else would use them?

Each window had its hangings, each room its decoration; the normal decorations went into the closet whence the winter ones had come. The final decoration surprised the girls: a strange tree with needle-like leaves, about a metre tall, to put at the centre of the table. Aji looked closer, and after careful inspection, "It's not a real tree!"

Ayami smiled. "Yes. It's an artificial tree; I can't afford a real one, even a small one. But it's the best I can afford, and I'll be able to pass it down to Akane. Now, we need to trim it," and Akane took out a last box, revealing odd little pieces of glass and metal, some with images and some with signs. One by one, each of them took a piece, and at Ayami and Akane's instruction hung it in a certain place on the tree, creating a subtle pattern, setting a many-pointed sphere at the top.

They sat back around the table. "Thank you for your help," Ayami said.

The girls looked around, finally allowing themselves to take in the fullness of their work. The little family, the nesting doves, the elaborate six pointed stars in the windows, the red-clad man with the lamp-bearing staff and others. Only the shrine had not been decorated; the presence of the idol and the strength of the mother and daughter's prayers would keep it safe.

.oO()Oo.

The sisters returned in time for services, and took their part in the droning chant and the prostrations and the prayers. After that, they told their mother of their activities at Ayami's. "I… cannot approve of your invoking powers other than our Lord's. Yet at the same time, you are right, your prayers and your daughter's are not enough to protect your home. This is clearly a sin, and just as clearly needful, and penance is required. I must think on this matter." Ayami swallowed hard, and Akane stepped close to hold her hand. Apart from the sounds filtering through the two windows, the Temple was silent, and the atmosphere grew thick with tension. After an uncertain interval, the High Priestess spoke. "For as long as these supplemental protections are in place, you and Akane must live under the strictest of Temple discipline. You will spend as much time as possible in your apartment, forgo your bedding, wear only your prayer clothes in your apartment. Your meals will be of the simplest, and your bathing will use only cold water. You will follow the full prayer schedule, including your sunset prayer with us."

Ayami nearly collapsed with relief as she went to her knees, and tugged Akane down with her; the girl followed her mother's lead, and lowered her head. "Thank you for your mercy, High Priestess. It will be as you say." Happily, she was planning to be mostly closeted anyway, working on her next painting. It would still be a hardship, but not an excessive financial hardship.

.oO()Oo.

"Mommy," Akane asked, "what did we do wrong?" She watched her mother close the curtains, and turn on a single, small light, the one in the red-dressed man's statue. Her mother put her clothes in the hamper, and told her to do the same, and she obeyed. Then her mother sat before the table, and patted the floor beside her.

"To put our faith in anyone but Aku," she explained, "is a sin. Yet at the same time, the High Priestess understands that that we two cannot raise enough power in prayer to protect our home, so must supplement His protection. But however needful, it is still a sin, and we must do penance for that. So, we have to do a bad thing, but it's still a bad thing. Do you understand?"

Akane frowned in thought. "Sort of, I think. So we're going to sleep on just the floor?"

"Yes," she confirmed. "But we'll have pillows, and keep the curtains closed to keep in the heat, and if you like, we can share a room. The High Priestess said strictest discipline, but that still allows pillows. Even the Blessed Daughters were allowed stones on which to rest their heads. This will be hard, but endurable." Akane looked down, not trying to hide her sadness.


	16. Prison Broke

Akane slept very badly that first night, between the hardness of the floor and waking every three hours for prayers, and Ayami, who'd grown up in such conditions, spent much time in consoling her, and assuring her that she'd get used to it soon. Akane trusted her mother, but was still very glad when they went out the next day to get a great deal of meat. The two of them spent the entire day, once back from their trip, in slicing the meat, praying to their Lord and Master, and drying the meat until they had enough to last the entire four weeks around Long Night, barely finishing in time to don their prayer clothes, along with boots and jackets, and reach the Temple in time for the sunset service.

The High Priestess noted with approval Akane's tiredness, and Ayami's lesser fatigue. It was good to see they were performing their penance honestly. To the sisters, Akane's tiredness was a bit puzzling, until they remembered that she was on the full schedule of eight prayers where they'd grown up on six: Sunset, early night, midnight, late night, sunrise, and noon. Their mother had ruled that they would need the extra rest to reach their physical and mental peak.

The service, with its droning chant and repeated prostrations, proceeded smoothly. They had their incense, their prayers and chants, and now, a surprisingly deep bell, which Rika struck at carefully measured intervals. Ayami and Akane thanked the High Priestess for permitting them to attend, then quietly departed. Once home, they removed their prayer clothes, and took a sparse meal before taking turns in the bathroom and trying to get a bit of sleep before the early night prayer.

Akane twitched and moaned, unable to get comfortable on the hard floor. Had her mother actually grown up like this? The thought of it made her heart sink, she'd have to be extra helpful from now on. Her mother shook her gently awake, they donned their prayer clothes and offered the early night prayer, then they removed their prayer clothes and tried to get some more sleep.

.oO()Oo.

"The men you humiliated will not let this pass," Ayano told them. "They will seek retribution again; they are too prideful to bear any loss of control, and when they strike again, you must kill them. All of them. I know we taught you when not dealing with the Samurai to accept surrenders, to kill only when needed, and those teachings are true. It is only that these men will not surrender honestly, or cease seeking your death."

Ashi nodded. "We understand," and her sisters nodded in wordless agreement. "Thank you for your wisdom, Sister Ayano."

.oO()Oo.

A few more days came and went, the girls working at the Dome, exploring the city, visiting with the Waves, and performing their devotions. Then as they walked home one night, they caught glints of metal in nearby windows, and suddenly sprang to the relevant roofs, vanishing their snowsuits' arms in flight. Down stairways and into halls, then with impossible synchronization, seven doors on seven floors of seven brownstone buildings were in need of new frames.

Jo-Mo turned to fire, and a lightning bolt blew out his nervous system. In seconds, Adi reduced his soldiers to cooling corpses; out of respect for the building's owner and the other tenants, she used only her hands and feet, snapping necks and crushing windpipes, while in the other apartments, her sisters did similar things. Just under two minutes from their initial leap, roughly four dozen corpses went out assorted windows, and the girls after them; they gathered around Jo-Mo's body.

"These men sought our deaths," Ashi announced. "They found their own. These men, and people like them, are not welcome in this place. Their signs are not welcome in this place. This place will be made clean and safe." And with that, they continued on their way to the Temple, not even noticing the muffled commotion trailing them.

.oO()Oo.

They told their mother of what had happened, and though they could not see it, they could read in her body language she was pleased. "You have acted well and properly, my daughters. Those men and those like them will not challenge you again. Truly Aku's spirit is within you."

"Thank you, Mother," Ashi said, her heart warming at her mother's praise, and she knew her sisters felt the same.

A moment later, they heard the door open at Ayami and Akane's arrival, just in time for sunset services. The twelve made their prayers before the idol, and all were glad to see that Akane and Ayami were indeed adapting to the new schedule their penance imposed.

.oO()Oo.

Back in their apartment, the little family stowed their prayer suits in the shrine alcove, and Akane sat down on the bare floor, their mats and cushions packed away for the duration. Her mother sat beside her. "It's time for our meditations," and they both shifted to full lotus and their breathings slowed, then became erratic as they entered into the empty stillness in which time was irrelevant. When the phone's alarm went off, one of the few bits of modern technology the High Priestess had exempted from normal Temple discipline, the two unfolded themselves, donned their prayer suits, and performed their devotions by the light of the shrine's oil sconces, Akane adding to their small idol's bowl a bit of myrrh, its bitter, woody, slightly medicinal scent scent filling the shrine. They prostrated themselves repeatedly, and droned the wordless praises of the early night service, then after extinguishing the sconces and incense, departed the shrine and removed their prayer suits before they went to Ayami's bedroom and their pillows. How she ached to hold her daughter close, ease her troubled heart.

.oO()Oo.

In Kuri's shared apartment, the Waves and the Dark Stars had spread out, each group doing something different. On the larger bed, Aji and Ari sat with Kuri and Yazu, playing something called a "board game." It was some sort of escape simulator, and surprisingly stimulating. On the smaller, Adi was learning from Sulka her first card game, something called hanafuda. And in the main room, the others practiced at secular music; they were getting better at the new styles, and sharing the song with the Waves was surprisingly enjoyable, in a way they'd never known before. The evening passed pleasantly until the time the Stars needed to depart for Temple.

The Waves gathered in the main room once their guests were gone. "You know," Sulka said, "I'm really surprised at those girls. Considering how they grew up?"

Kuri nodded to that. "Yeah, I know. But I'm still glad we're getting them on our side, just in case." And the others murmured agreement. A few songs later, they either readied themselves for bed, or headed to their own shared apartments, and Kuri, Yazu and Sulka slid far down in the larger bed, and in the quiet dark, they drew very close indeed.

.oO()Oo.

After the service, the High Priestess questioned them closely as to their activities. Her displeasure was clear even with her tightly controlled voice and posture, but she ordered no punishments, hoping her clear disapproval would be enough to keep their from straying too far. Sadly, she had been right about the necessity of their learning to survive in cities, and Ayano had been right about the risk of their losing focus. But come the spring, that would change. There would be more training, enough to fill even Ashi's endless appetite for questions, then the girls would go after the Samurai.

.oO()Oo.

It had only been days after the deaths of the fools who had sought their deaths, and in that short time, the marks had indeed been removed, including the one on their door, and it was not long after that a knock came at the door, just after the afternoon prayers. The High Priestess answered, and stepped outside to speak with the skinny, shabbily dressed old woman. That one looked about. "Could we talk inside?" she asked, her voice thin and plaintive.

"No," the High Priestess answered firmly. "The Temple is only for those of the Faith. If you would talk inside, we must go elsewhere."

The woman sighed, and led her into the upper section of the building. The two sat on the bench in the narrow entryway. "It's my daughter, she's been taken. Can your girls help get her back? Please?" Her eyes brimmed with tears, her voice shook, and the High Priestess nodded.

"We will do what can. Tell me about your daughter and those who took her."

.oO()Oo.

The sisters rarely appeared in the fighters' green rooms, since they'd been removed from the fighting circuit, and so the many fighters turned their heads when they entered those rooms. In one of them, Aki approached an exceptionally underdressed fighting woman with bright yellow skin, one she suspected might know where she could look for information she needed. "What brings you here?" the woman asked. "You're not coming back to this circuit. Are you?" and her voice shook a bit at that thought.

Aki shook her head. "We're not. But… a girl from where we live was taken," and she told the other woman what she knew about the abduction. The woman's eyes went wide.

"If that girl's still alive, you need to get her out, and everyone with her," she said. "I don't know where they are, or who, but maybe you can get hold of them. I've got an idea."

.oO()Oo.

After running the suggestion past their mother, Aki consulted with Kuri about the plan.

"It won't work," Kuri said. "Not without some changes to you. New hairstyle, new clothes… can you take that suit of yours off?"

She shook her head. "When Ashi said we were one with the darkness, she meant just that. Our darksuits are part of us, they don't come off."

Kuri frowned in thought. "Right. That limits our options. Your darksuits look like matte latex, so…" She slowly smiled. "I have an idea, come on!" and she led Aki to a part of town with stores selling strange sorts of clothing and footwear, all of which looked extremely impractical. Kuri led her visibly confused companion into a particular one, one with exceedingly strange clothing, and other items Aki decided not to ask about. This was confusing enough already.

.oO()Oo.

Aki looked at herself in the mirror, or more precisely at her feet in their bizarre shoes. "I can barely stand up," she complained. The shoes forced a thoroughly unnatural posture upon her, and even with her exceptional agility, she felt about to fall over.

Kuri smiled. "That's the point. You want to look like you're very new to all this, good bait. I know you can protect yourself, but don't. When the guys grab you, don't fight back until you know if they're the ones you want." She took some time to explain to Aki how to know the kind of man she needed to follow, and when and how to use and not use force in this task. She seemed to have some experience in these matters so Aki listened and learned.

.oO()Oo.

At the Dome, Ashi approached her, and passed her a small object. "Our… helper told me about these once I thought to ask. It's called a phone, it will let us talk when we're far apart. If you need help, you can use this to call us to you," and she showed Aki how to do that. "We'll stop whatever we're doing and come to you as fast as we can." Aki gaped, then hugged her impulsively. Ashi hugged back, then after their match, Kuri showed Aki the way to a club where she might be approached by the men they sought.

.oO()Oo.

It was the night before the Long Night ceremonies that Aki finally got lucky. She'd "lost her nerve" or "changed her mind" on several others, but this time, when she turned away, her entire nervous system lit up and she collapsed, barely conscious. She chose to feign true unconsciousness, allowing the man to lock her in a cage in the back of their van. Perfect. As they drove, she produced her phone, and shielding the glow with her body, called up the map, doing her best to keep track of their location. She wasn't sure where she was being taken, but she was sure she'd want her sisters' help soon. When the men got out of the van, she vanished the phone and did her best to act groggy and wobbly (not hard in those ridiculous shoes). They'd gone about ten hours' walk from the club, so even if she called for help, her sisters would need at least a half hour to get there, probably more; her skin grew cold and her guts chilled at the realization that for the first time in her life, she was entirely on her own.

The larger man grabbed her upper arm, and forcefully escorted her through a door in the side of a large, extremely plain, grey room with a metal door, then hustled her through another large room; to her left, she caught glimpses of naked women in rooms with bars for one wall, then intentionally fell over when shoved through a second metal door, then clambered awkwardly to her feet. The room was as plain as everything else, a neutral grey, furnished with a large desk, a plain, simple wooden chair with arms, and a large raised wooden platform with leather restraints at its corners and in the centre of one short side, and a belt with chains in the centre. That was very puzzling, why have such a thing in this room? Why have it at all?

A relatively small man sat behind the desk, his eyes cold and his suit and hair similar greys to the paints. "Nice piece," the man said. "Get your clothes off, girlie. Or do you want my boys to take 'em off?" Aki carefully removed her collar, her cuffs, and finally her boots (a considerable relief), then when he ordered her to remove the catsuit, her darksuit she presumed, she refused. The man who'd escorted her drew a gun and went down from a kick to the sternum, then the grey man received a kick to the head that left him out cold. She searched them both, and found nothing useful except for his stun gun, which she vanished, then searched the room, finding nothing more helpful. Time to explore. But first, she produced her phone.

"I've found the place where the girls were taken," she said after greeting Ashi. "I don't need help yet, but I'll call you when I know more." Ashi accepted that, and she ended the call. Aki felt so much better in just her darksuit, and stepped out. The large room outside the office had the two barred rooms, and a doorway off it, and she walked into the next room. Behind a large desk, two men sat, and lining the room, more bar-walled rooms, with more naked women, laying on cots or staring with empty eyes. The men were alert, aware, fast and sharp, pulling what she recognized as stun guns, but against her? They never had a chance, and slumped over their panels, unconscious.

Aki looked to the girls. "Can any of you tell me how to open your doors?" she asked, and one girl mustered the will to answer her, helping her to find the controls to the cell doors. She flipped switches, and doors swung open. Some inmates shuffled out, others didn't dare move. Again Aki produced her phone, and told Ashi the situation. Then she vanished her phone, and with soft words and gentle touches, coaxed the fear-frozen girls out of their cells. Eventually, her sisters arrived, with clothes for the girls; most dressed very quickly, but two declined, eyeing the garments with dread, and so, the sisters escorted them out to the waiting minibus, then they themselves walked to the nearest bus stop.

At the wheel, Ayami watched the girls being herded aboard, despite their evident fear of her, masked and robed and sheathed in black. She would not have been allowed to leave her apartment, but the High Priestess had agree to permit the exception as she was the only Sister who could drive. She looked over the now-former prisoners, noting their varied builds, from powerfully muscular to nearly skeletal, and wondered what kind of man would want the latter sort. But one by one, she took the girls to where they asked, except for the two who hadn't dared to dress, the ones with nothing but fear behind their stares. What to do with them? Perhaps… She reluctantly dropped them off at a different brothel, one whose manager took pride in being able to train any girl into an eager wanton. She'd spent some time there herself, learning the arts of seduction and pleasure. Many would say it was a bad choice, and if asked, she would not have disagreed, but it was the best choice she could come up with. Finally, she returned to the apartment, and with Akane, performed the midnight devotions.

Back in the control centre, the men were stirring. "Are there any above you and your boss?" Aki asked the first man to wake up enough to question.

He sneered at her, "I ain't tellin' you nothing, you…"

She grabbed his shoulders and slammed him against the wall. "I stunned you and your partner in less time than it took you to draw your guns. Which I've already taken. Now, let's try again: are there any above you and your boss?"

Woah… this frail was not frail! He could feel the coiled steel in her grip, and knew she could break any bone she wanted. He shook his head. "I never heard about anyone," he said, voice shaking.

"Good," the shadow-sheathed girl snapped. "You have new orders, from me: Leave. Now. Take him with you," and she gestured with her head, not taking her eyes from him. "Never come back. This place is closed. Permanently."

He nodded hard, and Aki tossed him aside before vaulting the control console. Once the former guards were gone, she and her sisters systematically demolished everything they could before making their way to the nearest bus stop. They just hoped they'd be back in time for midnight services.

.oO()Oo.

There were in time, just barely, and all but simultaneous with Ayami and Akane. Ashi apologized to her mother for their near-tardy arrival, and once the fires were lit and the lights turned off, the twelve prostrated themselves repeatedly before the idol, droning a minor chord. Then Akane and her mother went to their apartment for the last day before the Long Night services.


	17. Holy Night

As was their custom, the remaining Daughters of Aku ate to repletion and drank generously before the sun went down, then the ceremonies themselves began. Long, droning chants began the night, repeated prostrations, as they normally did, but without ending as they normally did. As the night wore on, the High Priestess preached a sermon on the history of their Faith, then they returned to their chant until it was time for the Blessed Daughters to sing the song of praise, a subtly complex piece involving everything from a simple monophony to an intricate, heavily ornamented seven voiced stratification, ending in a simple, wordless drone. They returned to their chants again, then Rika and Ayano rose to perform a story-dance, Rika against Ayano in a stylized battle between the Samurai and one of Aku's minions, the giant playing the latter. Again, more chanting, then Akane rose to sing a song of praise in her fine, thin, piping voice, her mother providing a soft harmony, then more chanting.

At long last, as the sunlight began to appear through the red-tinted windows, there came the part Ayami had dreaded. She and Ayano stood before the altar, shed their robes, and peeled their suits down just enough that they could slip their arms free. "It is time," the High Priestess said as she produced her sacred blade. Ayano held her forearms up, and the High Priestess carefully cut the offered skin across the bone, and let the blood flow into the fire bowl as the others continued their droning chant and prostrations. Then Akane surged forward.

"No!" she declared. "You will not hurt my mother!" Her tone was stone-hard, not the petulant whine or despairing wail of a child.

Ayami looked to her. "But we must give Aku his offerings," she said, her voice soft, and the High Priestess turned to the girl.

"A child cannot be allowed to give Aku her blood," she said firmly, her tone not entirely unsympathetic, but Akane's stony expression did not waver.

"Aku can have my blood," she said, and wriggled her arms out of her suit. And in that moment, Akane grew up. She took her mother's place, and only hissed slightly at the pain of the knife. After a sufficient time had passed, Rika bandaged Ayano's arms and Ayami Akane's, then they carefully slipped their arms back into their sheaths.

The High Priestess then turned to face Akane, and in soft, genuinely warm tones, said to her, "Akane, in acknowledgement of your courage and devotion, I now raise you from Little Sister to full lay Sister of the Temple," then touched her shoulders lightly with her staff. The women and girl returned to their droning chants, their songs of praise and sacred dances, the confessions of sins and the painful penances administered with staff and fist, until the sun once more set.

.oO()Oo.

Back in their apartment, once they had removed their prayer suits, the two laid together on the floor, pillows touching, as close as they could get within Temple discipline. "Akane, I'm so proud of you. Not just because of your devotion to Him, but because…" She trailed off.

"Because I wouldn't let you get hurt?"

Ayami smiled. "Yes. It's rare for a child, especially at your age, to be willing to suffer in a parent's place." Tears started to rise in her eyes. "I never dreamed you could love me so much, be so brave. I couldn't love you more, be more proud. You're not a little girl any more. In all but body, you're a woman. A young woman, yes, but a woman nonetheless. If there's another Long Night ceremony, may I join you in giving the blood offering?"

She smiled in answer. "Yes, Mommy," and impulsively hugged her mother. She hugged back, then they separated to get some much needed sleep. They'd been up for over 36 hours.

.oO()Oo.

Back in the Temple, the High Priestess spoke as she turned from the door to the rest of her congregation. "This has been a wonderful night. A new Sister for the second time in nearly twenty years, and only weeks after your raising when I had expected many years at least. Oh, my daughters, I am so glad you convinced me to reconsider Ayami's sentence." The girls were astonished to hear their mother sound so joyful, but as they slipped under the covers of their sleeping mats, and slid together until they were lightly touching, they were very pleased at it.


	18. Taking the Plunge

The next day, the Waves invited them over, not to Kira's apartment but to a large house, a structure nearly the size of the Hall of Worship, built of large logs and with large windows. Inside, it was fairly plain: relatively little furniture, just a table and chairs, a bench with a back, a rocking chair, and in back of the main room, an enormous bed. Sulka smiled to the sisters in a way they couldn't quite read. "We've brought you here for one main reason," she said. "We're going to help you catch up on all the things you missed growing up in a cave. Including," and she suddenly surged forward, putting her arms around Aki, "cuddle time!" She stepped back. "We don't know anything about your faith, but, well, Aku worshippers. We couldn't imagine you got much in the way of hugs and kisses."

The seven looked down and to the sides, and Ashi shook her head. "We didn't," she admitted, reluctantly, voice low. "What we did get, we mostly got from each other. Not that Mother allowed much; she said it would make us weak to depend on each other." And the Waves looked at each other in total confusion.

"I don't get it," Lani said. "You're fighters, and everyone who's even played a squad game knows that fighters who work together are both safer and more effective." And the sisters looked equally confused.

"Squad game?" Ashi asked, and soon they were seated before the television, learning their first squad combat video game, their first video game of any sort.

.oO()Oo.

They returned in time for midnight services, and a sharp questioning from their mother. When it was done, she told them to bring the Waves to the learning temple the next day, after the mid-day service. That prompted hard swallows, worried looks, and no demurrals.

.oO()Oo.

Aki handled the call from their building's entryway; their mother only reluctantly accepted the use of electric lights and stove and running water, barely tolerated their phone and weapons chargers in the Temple, and using the phones was absolutely forbidden. The Waves and the sisters gathered with the High Priestess near the back of the second floor of the library, the Waves visibly intimidated by the High Priestess' masked form and icy demeanour.

"Since you called us here," Kuri said, clearly needing to work up her courage, "shouldn't you tell us why?"

"I must know and weigh your intentions for my daughters," she answered. "They have a purpose that requires them to be very strong fighters, the strongest in the world. I will not tolerate their being made weak."

Kuri paled and the others sat back a little bit. "We don't want to weaken them, we want to help them, teach them. Show them how to deal with things they don't even know exist, from simple TV and video games and movies to things like liquor and other intoxicants. Safely, under controlled conditions, with people who won't take advantage of them."

"And why do you wish to do these things?" she demanded, her voice still cold as the wind beyond the library's windows.

"Well, because we like your daughters. They're our friends, or at least they're getting there."

Aki spoke up. "She's right. Our mission will take us into many places, and we'll need to know how to handle ourselves and deal with the customs of the greater world. We can't afford to learn by experience, I almost failed my latest mission because of my own ignorance, not knowing how to spot the kind of man I was trying to find."

"And how exactly will you do this?" the High Priestess demanded.

"Well, first we'll teach them how to drink liquor without showing distaste. Then once they can do that, we'll do our best to teach them to tell different sorts apart. And at some point, we'll have them get very, very drunk, so they can find their limits in a safe environment, make sure they don't have problems in their sleep, then when they sober up, we'll help them get over their hangovers by making sure they have a quiet place and get lots of water. It's going to take time, of course, about until spring comes again. But if you allow it, we'll try not take too much time from their normal activities."

The temperature seemed to drop as the High Priestess considered the girl's words. "I do not favour this at all. I will tolerate it, as it has become necessary that my daughters learn much I had not originally intended for them, but I must be kept informed at every point on what you and my daughters do together, and come spring, they will have other skills they must acquire."

Kuri swallowed hard. "We'll do our best to aid your daughters without angering you overmuch, High Priestess. So far as we can, we'll keep whatever food and drink we offer them compliant with the requirements of your faith, if you'll share them with us."

"That will be acceptable," she said. "I will make a copy of the relevant passages, and my daughters will deliver them at their next visit." Kuri thanked her, and the High Priestess departed, her daughters trailing her.

Kuri gasped heavily from released tension once the towering Amazon was out of view; she'd not dared even breathe too deeply in her presence. "That woman… is scary. And she's their mother!?"

It was the blue-haired Luru who finally answered. "The more I learn about those girls, the more I'm amazed they're anything close to sane. At least she gave permission; I get the feeling she's the kind who says no with a knife. A big one." The others nodded, and went back to the house they'd shared with the sisters. That night, the bed was very full and the Waves very close.

.oO()Oo.

The sisters arrived at the house, more than a little nervous. They were confident that the Waves really were going to help them, but this was a training exercise, and they knew what that meant. Ashi rang the bell, and Kuri ushered them in to the sparsely furnished living room; they shared hugs with the loosely dressed Waves, and took seats on the floor, still not comfortable with chairs.

The Waves sat opposite from them, holding tall, broad glasses filled with liquid similar in colour to paper in torchlight, topped with foam. "This," Kuri said, "is beer. It's probably the most common kind of liquor there is. Take a sip, it's not strong at all."

The sisters did, and pulled faces as they did. "That is disgusting!" Aki said, and the rest agreed.

Kuri gave them a crooked grin. "Yeah, but it's really common. Why don't you face the TV?" she suggested, and when they did, set up her phone atop the set, letting it act as a mirror. "There. Now, take more sips, and try not to show you don't like it."

Watching themselves on the screen, they did learn, slowly, to conceal their distaste for the concoction, finally mastering it by the time they were done with their quite large glass steins. They set them aside, and the Waves gave them little glass bowls with spoons. "This is…"

"Lemon sorbet!" Ari said. "Ayami once gave us some, it's wonderful."

"Ah… yes. To get the beer taste out of your mouth before you try wine," Kuri said, trying to suppress her laughter at the sisters' pained looks. "It can wait," she said after a glance at her watch. "You have sunset services to get to, right?" Ari looked out the window, and agreed. They were barely able to get back to the Temple in time to join the services without being unseemly late.

After the services, Akane and her mother returned to their apartment, and Rika and Ayano took the daughters to a parking structure to test their skills in a brief spar; one on one against Rika, each won quickly and handily, Avi even managing to lift the brute and throw her down. Ayano watched closely and carefully, evaluating their lightning-fast movements, then they returned to the temple, glad to be back in its warmth.

The High Priestess looked over to her assistant and enforcer. "I could see no difference," Ayano told her. "Their reactions were as swift and sharp as always, their coordination as excellent. There was no hesitation in them, except when Avi realized she was about to throw RIka onto a vehicle and took a very brief moment to turn and hurl her to the floor instead."

The High Priestess nodded. "Good. Daughters, tel me of what happened with the Waves," and Ashi did as asked. The High Priestess took in the information in her usual impassive manner. "You comported yourself as well as can be expected. I still cannot approve this, though I do recognize the necessity. You were… fortunate in your meeting with these girls." But her tone conveyed clearly her distaste for the necessity.

"Yes, Mother." Ashi agreed. "We cannot stay, we have a contest tonight, a contest of swimming and breath-holding." Her mother nodded, and dismissed them.

.oO()Oo.

In the Dome, the girls looked over their arena, a pool roughly thirty times their height in length and half that in width, and about four times their height in depth, its floor and sides coloured in curved shapes of blue and green. The contest was simple: score points by swimming through hoops and collecting objects. The deeper and smaller the hoop, the more points, the same for objects. Their opponents were again women, as they most often were, but these women looked very strange, with slick-looking grey skin, oddly large eyes with no immediately discernible white or pupil, webbed hands, and no hair anywhere on their extremely sleek nude bodies. Crown to sole, nothing but skin. The rules specified no contact, any contact meant immediate expulsion from the pool for a variable duration, and injury resulted in immediate forfeiture of the match and purse share.

Each team lined up on one of the long sides of the pool, and at the official's signal dove in, smoothly sliding in, racing toward the nearest targets. The grey women undulated through the water, and the sisters took their cue from that, gaining a little speed; the sisters' fantastic strength helped them in moving through the heavy resistance of the water, almost balancing the sleek skins and hydrodynamic proportions of their opponents. But they were at a great disadvantage against the water-worlders: they were at base human in physiology, and simply could not match their opponents' ability to stay under. They did their best, at Ashi's signals moving to block hoops and force diversions, but the ultimate outcome was as expected: the sisters lost. Yet the loss was closer than expected, the final score 50-70, and their handler told them, with something vaguely resembling approval, that they'd done extremely well, all things considered, and their returned to the Temple in high spirits. And when they told their mother what had happened, she actually seemed pleased. "You need to improve your breath control," she said, but she only said it.

.oO()Oo.

Once the sisters had departed, Kuri read over the dietary restrictions they'd been given. "Looks pretty simple. 'Now these are the things that are not fit to eat in the eyes of Aku: the meat of any being that thinks, for these are Aku's most beloved creations. The meat of any thing which is alive when it is being eaten, for this is the way of beasts, and for thinking beings to do this is offensive to their dignity and abominable in the eyes of Aku. The meat of any animal which feeds only upon dead flesh, or which eats dung, because these keep clean and pure the world Aku has made. Of the creatures of the waters, those that walk beneath the surface are forbidden you, for they keep pure the waters. Many growing things will poison you, and are meant for other creatures, or for use in medicine, and so are forbidden to eat. All other living things are your proper food.'"

She looked to the others. "I'd expected something more arbitrary and complicated. But… who eats animals you haven't killed first?"

Yazu answered that. "I can think of a few dishes. Some people eat the tentacles of octopi by cutting them off the live animal, and swallowing them while they still wriggle, and there are others who swallow small fish whole. I've even heard that some chefs know how to scale fish, cut their meat, dip them in hot oil to cook it a little, and put them on the plate and get them to the diner so fast that the fish is still alive while it's eaten." She thought for a few moments. "And if you're really hungry, like edge of starvation hungry, you might not bother with the niceties of killing your food when you catch it." The others looked understandably nauseous at those thoughts.

Sulka spoke up. "Anything else?"

Kuri read on. "Many are the things one might eat or drink, or breathe the vapours from the burning thereof, that can cloud the mind and dull the senses. These things you must avoid when you can, and when you cannot, must be most careful to take as little as you can, and not impair your effectiveness, for it it not fit for the Faithful to make themselves unready for the trials of the world." She reread the passage, then shuddered a little. "No wonder their mother was so cold. I guess she figured this would be good training. They can't avoid taking too much if they don't know how much they can take, or avoid things if they don't know what to avoid."

The Waves looked to each other, and Zenti finally spoke. "We're really walking a tightrope on this one. Do we want to keep this up?"

"Yes," Kuri said after some consideration. "We made a commitment, and if we try to back out, well… High Priestess of Aku. I don't want her mad at us." The others nodded to that; they'd all heard stories of people who'd failed to keep an agreement with Aku. But that night, they chose to share the beds, packed close and very warm.


	19. Wine and Worry

The sisters added a new aspect to their gym time: free diving, as they quickly learned it was called. Their combat events were now restricted to strictly non-lethal one-on-many matches, and even those were rare, when it took a dozen or more fighters to even inconvenience a single Dark Star; they took part in contests of dance and song and acrobatics, where they were only exceptional, not unbeatable. Every night they could, they visited with the Waves, who carefully took them through the stages of learning to cope with beer.

"I don't think any of us actually like this stuff," Zazu confessed. "But it's too common for you not to learn to cope with," she said after the sisters had learned to down large steins without pausing for breath or letting their distaste show.

Kuri collected the steins, then came back with a tray of thin-walled long stemmed glasses, filled with a very pale yellow liquid. "It's time for you to start learning about wine. Wine's not like beer; you take it in sips, and it tastes OK, usually."

The sisters took their glasses and sniffed delicately at them. The odour was less noxious, at least, and the taste was both sweet and biting. Careful sips were enough to convince them that wine was less noxious than beer, but not more desirable. Still, they did need to learn to handle such things, and so they took their slow sips, alternating with bits of cheese and crackers, as the Waves told them was a common way to take wine.

"This is called 'chardonnay,'" Kuri told them. "It's a kind of white wine. Zazu?"

Zazu took over. "There are, broadly, about a dozen varieties of white wine, and about the same of red. We'll help you learn to tell them apart, and which sorts are usually put with which foods. My family runs a winery, so I learned all about this growing up."

Ari paid particularly close attention to Zazu's explanation. "I see. So there are three sorts of liquor: beer, which is disgusting, white wine, which tastes better but stings the tongue and still isn't very good, and red wine, which is probably much the same as white wine."

Zazu sighed. "There are a lot more than three. There's whiskey, rum, ouzo, ciders (those are like beers, but taste a lot better), pulque, metzcal, and probably hundreds of others." At the sisters' looks of pained incredulity, she barely repressed her laughter. "It's not that bad, they all do pretty much the same thing. They're just different kinds of strong and bad. Except maybe rum. I kind of like rum, now and then."

Sulka spoke up then, "We're not ascetics like you, we just like to keep our heads clear. Lots of nasty people out there, so if a pretty girl gets wasted, she's probably going to get wasted," and had to explain what she meant, while mentally kicking herself for not realizing that the Stars had never had the chance to learn about slang. From there, the wine and cheese party merged with a karaoke party and the sisters learning more secular songs before the time came for them to return to the Temple.

As always, they told their mother of their experiences, and she expressed her opinion of their conduct in, for her, moderate terms, merely stating her distaste for the lessons and their necessity. And requiring extra prayers to earn forgiveness.

.oO()Oo.

"I do not like this at all," Ayano said when the Blessèd Daughters were at the gym. "They have a purpose, they are neglecting it."

The High Priestess nodded to that. "I like it no better than you. But they cannot pursue their purpose until we learn the samurai's location, at least approximately, and they will likely need the skills the Waves are teaching them. Still," she said as she looked to Rika, "I worry they are losing their edge. Rika, go to the Dome and find out what you can." And the giantess nodded, then departed.

The heavy-worlder said nothing, but behind her mask, she grimaced. She hating leaving the Temple, and hated returning to it. She had to crouch and sidle uncomfortably to get through ordinary doors, and vehicles were even worse. As she walked toward the Dome, she contemplated, not for the first time, the possibility of finding a community of her own people and spending some time with them. She would never abandon the Daughters of Aku of course, not after they'd shown her such kindness by taking her in, tending her, and giving her a fine purpose in life. But it would be nice to be somewhere with ceilings and doors built to decent size again.

People shied away from her, as she'd come to expect, discomfited by her size, her black sheath, her mask, and most of all her aggressive swagger. Then one young man in spectacularly gaudy clothes and a truly excessive amount of jewellery stepped in front of her. She glanced down at him. "Move."

He looked right up at her mask, "Nope. Big doll, you're on my turf and you gotta pay a toll."

Rika frowned behind her mask, wondering if he was simply arrogant enough to think he could force anything on her, or both as arrogant as that and mind-breakingly stupid. She settled on both quickly enough. "I will pay your toll. I give you your bones… unbroken," she growled in the deepest alto he'd ever heard.

The man actually laughed at that, and snapped his fingers. "Cute, girly. Think you're tough enough to take us all?" he asked as four more similarly dressed young mean joined him; two held pistols and two held knives. Rika answered by kicking the leader into the air, moving faster that they'd imagined possible, then grabbing him by the leg and swinging him into the others like a club, but the gunmen were just fast enough to fire on her, putting two bullets into her, forcing pained grunts from her before she struck them down with their own leader, then unceremoniously dropped him on top of his minions. Get help, bleed out, she didn't really care about them; she was more concerned with her own health. For the moment, she pressed her hands against her chest and kept walking. The Dome would have healers.

.oO()Oo.

Fortunately, they also had a policy of giving first aid first, and charging second. Rika's immense mass and strength and toughness meant the bullets had penetrated deep, but not to her organs, so their removal was a simple matter of drawing them out with clean forceps, irrigating the injuries, and suturing carefully. She wouldn't even have a scar afterward, and she had enough money on her to pay for the simple treatment.

She told the attendant why she had come initially, and he took her to someone could help. Not long after, she was heading back out, a little something stowed in her darkness.

.oO()Oo.

The High Priestess watched the Temple's door open, and frowned as Rika first sidled through then drew from her darkness a large rectangular object, which she set upon the floor and connected to a power outlet. "What," she demanded, "is that?"

"It is called a television," Rika said. "I paid a small sum to have its use for two days. With it, and with this," she continued as she drew what looked like a crystal coin from her darkness, "we can watch the Blessèd Daughters in their battles at the Dome." She inserted the crystal into the slot on the TV, as she had been instructed, then produced the remote and again used it as instructed. "This is called a recording," she said, and began the playback.

.oO()Oo.

Hours passed, in watching the footage and in performing services, and when the sisters returned from their most recent combat, the High Priestess turned to them. "Rika brought a recording of your contests in the Dome. I am most pleased, my daughters; had I access to a properly consecrated kiln and suitable clay, I would fashion sacred masks for you." They smiled brightly at her words.

"Thank you, Mother," Ashi said. "We have not forgotten our purpose, and will begin our mission come summer, when we have learned to survive in the wilderness and function smoothly in the city."

She nodded to that. The delay still galled her, but she had the comfort of knowing that they were not meaningfully weaker, and were growing more skilled. So long as they maintained their faith, she'd have to accept that.

.oO()Oo.

Most of the next day was spent in analysis of their contests and their few battles, the girls explaining their reasoning when asked, their mother and Ayano and sometimes even Rika offering suggestions and comments, then they went to the Waves' leader's apartment, where they continued their studies of wine, and though without being aware of it, the concept of friendship.

"I know you can't stay, you have services to attend," Kuri said as they were preparing to depart. "But… when the time comes, will your mother let you stay over? If you can get drunk, we're going to want to watch you all night, and since your Temple is off-limits…"

Adi answered, "I don't know. She might allow us to skip midnight service; we'd have to do penance of course. But sunset is mandatory. We've never once missed sunset service in all our lives, and we won't start now." The others nodded in agreement.

"How are we coming in our wine lessons?" Ari asked, and Zazu told them how far they were along. "Good. These are worthwhile, but wearing."

Sulka chuckled a little. "Yeah, we've read your dietary restrictions. But once you're done, you'll probably be able to get out of needing to drink liquor at all. Still good to find your limits with friends, right?"

Ashi smiled gently. "Yes." She still wasn't quite clear on this "friend" concept, but it seemed close enough to Temple Sister.

.oO()Oo.

At last, the most dangerous time of winter had passed, and after returning from sunset services, Ayami and Akane took down and stored away their protective decorations, without opening the curtains more than necessary, then after much too long, finally put on normal clothes, pyjamas and dressing gowns. That had been the most galling part of their penance, as it was only appropriate to wear the prayer suits during (or when travelling to or from) services. They sat on a cushion, Akane in her mother's lap, and watched television while they enjoyed a shared bowl of popcorn. Once the show was over, Ayami and Akane went to Ayami's futon, where they slept with Akane backed up against her mother's front. It was a truly restful night, their sleep only broken by their midnight service.


	20. Lesson Plans

Day by day, the Daughters, with the Waves' extensive aid, learned about the many things of which their mother had kept them ignorant, whether from lack of opportunity, as with television and movies, or from intentional choices, as with almost any sort of pleasure. Finally, Kuri broached the needed question, which lead to another library meeting.

"My daughters did not say exactly why this is needed," the High Priestess said, this time with Ayano beside her. Rika had chosen to remain at the Temple, citing her dislike of common doors.

Kuri swallowed hard, her face drawn tight with tension, simultaneously wishing the other Waves were there for support and very glad they weren't. "Ah… your girls have learned how to tell drink from drink," she said, hesitant and careful with her words. "how to pace their eating and drinking so they won't likely get drunk, how to pretend they can enjoy drink… or at least not show they don't. The only thing left is to find out how much they can take. Thing is… they might not be in fit shape to attend some services afterward."

The High Priestess raised her hand to cut off Ayano's protest. "I do not like any of this. You know our laws and you know why." Kuri nodded, spastic and sharp. "Unfortunately, you have been right. So I will permit this. But for every service missed, you will need to attend one extra to make it up," she said to the sisters, who nodded solemnly in understanding. "And if I should learn," she continued and she turned her attention back to Kuri, "that you exceeded what was needed to let them find their limit, or failed in your duty of care toward them, or you allow any harm to come to them during this, I will give to Aku a burned offering." Even through her mask, her fixed stare and unwavering body language made it very clear what she would be offering, and the sisters paled in horror. Kuri herself was nearly grey with terror, eyes wide, her whole body shaking slightly.

She managed to nod spastically, and after several shuddering breaths, managed to get out a reply, agreeing to be extremely careful of her daughters' well-being. It was just as well she'd travelled by bus.

.oO()Oo.

Once she was gone, the girls turned to their mother. "Mother," Ashi asked reluctantly, "you wouldn't really…"

Their mother and Ayano rose and nodded in unison. "I will. I can only barely tolerate this necessity, I will not permit anyone involved to take it at all lightly."

"You are more generous than I would have been, High Priestess," Ayano said. "Were it my choice…"

"Were it your choice, the Daughters would have gaps in their education which are no longer endurable. My decision stands."

Ayano lowered her head and spoke softly. "Yes, High Priestess."

That one turned back to her daughters. "Do this tonight. After sunset service," she said, and they chorused their agreement.

.oO()Oo.

It took everything the girls had to get through the service smoothly, to put aside their fear for their friend; once on the way, they didn't even try to remain composed, and by the time they reached the house Zazu said her parents owned, they were nearly light-headed from shallow breathing.

Zazu escorted them quickly to the lower room, the one that was all but empty, where they saw seven trays, seven cushions, seven small, stemmed glasses, and several familiar bottles. "I've got everything ready. Since this could take a lot of liquor, I stocked up on crème de menthe." The girls smiled weakly at that. They still didn't like any liquor, but at least that had an acceptable flavour. They took their assigned places, and as Zazu turned down the lights, Sulka put on some light music of the sort they'd learned was called "jazz." In a circle, the girls each poured out a glass, and drank it down quickly.

"Nothing to eat?" Aji asked, and Kuri shook her head.

"Food would get you less drunk, and since the whole point is a worst case test, well." She did look a little embarrassed, on top of being clearly frightened. Ashi smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way, then it was back to the drinking.

By the end of the bottles, the girls had had enough for a time and stood. The Waves just stared in amazement. "You just had sixteen drinks in quick succession," Sulka told them. "Most girls your size couldn't even stand up after that, if they even got that far! Truth is, after… six or seven, I'd say, I really expected you to be passing out drunk."

While the sisters made use of the house's many bathrooms, Zazu broke out new bottles, and put the old ones aside for deposit return. "I do not believe those girls," she said. "I'm starting to wonder if we can get them drunk alt all."

Kuri just nodded weakly. "I didn't think anyone could drink that much and even stay upright. We've got to really watch them if this all catches up at once." The other all agreed completely, and when the sisters returned, and resumed their drinking, finally finishing their bottles. They very carefully stood up, with effort, leaning on each other for support until the Waves gently took each one under the shoulder, and helped them, one by one, to the beds, watching them carefully all through the night.

.oO()Oo.

In time for the morning prayers, the Daughters filed in, looking none the worse for wear. Indeed, they were positively cheerful, to the High Priestess' surprise. "Did you not find your limit?" she asked. "It is no shame if you declined the test."

"We did not decline," Ashi told her. "We each drank two full bottles of strong spirits before we lost consciousness; the Waves watched us through the night, made sure we had a great deal of water to ease our headaches, gave us a large breakfast, and saw us onto the bus. Kuri says we still need to learn to handle something called 'weed,' and to identify other intoxicants, but not to use them."

"Truly," their mother said, sounding quite amazed. "Clearly, you need have no fear for that. I am pleased. Take the full services today and tomorrow… no. Today and three days hence." She'd almost forgotten their matches at the Dome. "That will be enough, including prayers for forgiveness for the missed services. And for their services, the Waves are considered honorary lay Sisters." The sisters nodded to her words, and the rest of the day was filled with practice, sparring, and services.

.oO()Oo.

"What does that mean?" Zazu asked in a momentarily unused changing room. This was not a question for the green rooms.

Ashi considered that for a moment. "You're not allowed in His holy places, but if a Sister asks you for help, you're expected to give it. And if you ask a Sister for help, she's expected to give it."

Zazu smiled, weakly. "I'll tell Kuri. Thank you, Ashi," and she hugged the girl. They'd learned during the capacity test that the girls were extremely tactile and affectionate, and Ashi returned the hug, a bit awkwardly, but she returned it.

.oO()Oo.

Day by day, the Daughters of Aku noticed changes in their neighbourhood. Tags vanished, replaced with clean new paint, obscene graffiti got scrubbed away, replaced with new artwork, much of it excellent. Now and again some fool would try try to challenge them; at the advice of the locals, the challenger would receive a relatively mild beating at the hands of one of the sisters. If he, or now and then she, returned, that one clearly could not be trusted to stay away, and so needed to die. The supply of challengers quickly dried up, and people started to leave them gifts of food or of objects. The food went to their stores, the objects mostly to people they thought could use them. It was not the way of the Daughters of Aku to accumulate material goods beyond Temple furnishings. A tubular bell, blocks of incense, supplies of oil, these they kept; the rest went to those in need. Simply by dint of living in this new place, they had perforce become less cloistered than the elders would have preferred.

.oO()Oo.

Their penance done, Akane and her mother started catching up on their social obligations. Nearly a month of being effectively hermits had done them no favours, even having told their friends and contacts they were going to be undertaking a spiritual retreat for a time.

"Mort, I'm sorry I haven't been in touch with you," Ayami said to her agent. "But during my retreat, I made this," and she showed him her latest creation, the line work for her next painting. "I call it 'The Far Temple.' The idea is to emphasize how ascetic they are by showing the snow outside this window while the sisters sleep before a small fire." She'd been inspired by the Blessèd Daughters' tale and that of the Elders.

Mort looked it over. "I like it. Is this the first time you've shown them outside their temple?"

She nodded. "I considered making a piece around the bathing pools, but I can't do it without showing their faces, and you know my feelings on that." Mort grunted agreement.

"Make the painting. The prints will sell."

.oO()Oo.

At the playdome, Akane was not so fortunate. The other kids were so… they were just kids. Winning at tag or monster maze was the biggest thing they could imagine. She did her best, but after, Sarah came up to her and asked what was wrong with her.

"I'm sorry, Sarah," Akane said with a heavy sigh. "I… Solstice was bad. We… someone broke in, he wanted to hurt Mommy. I got to him first, I hurt him bad, and he hurt me. He had a knife, my arm got cut," she said, looking down and making her voice shake a little. "It was really scary, but I made him go away. Sarah, he could have killed me! He could have killed Mommy! All this… it's kind of…" and she trailed off, not knowing what to say.

Sarah's mouth turned down, and she hugged her friend. "Yeah," she said with a sigh. "I guess." She didn't really get it, but… it sounded like Akane needed more grown-up fun now. But she was still a friend, and hugs were always good. "Maybe we could go to the arcade later?"

Akane perked up. "Yeah! We can play the drum game!"

.oO()Oo.

She returned home in high spirits, just in time to change and go to Temple for sunset service. The familiar repetitions of the chants of praise helped her settle herself, and once they were back home and back into normal clothes, she impulsively hugged her mother before they sought their shared futon.

.oO()Oo.

Another meeting at the library, Kuri again trying not to be too close to the High Priestess. "What is your next plan for my daughters?" she asked in her cold tone.

She swallowed hard. "The other most common intoxicant: weed. It's totally different from liquor, though. Weed makes you feel relaxed, happy, sometimes more sensual or, um, affectionate - don't worry, we won't have any guys around." Assuming they could actually do it through their darksuits. "It can also be a very mild hallucinogen. It's not addictive, and it's actually got some medical uses, not that your girls need to worry about that. Oh, and smoking it can stimulate the appetite for food."

"Can it harm them?" the woman with the four horns asked.

Kuri shook her head. "Only if they smoked it regularly, and frequently, for years. An occasional puff won't hurt them, and it's not actually toxic that I've ever heard."

The High Priestess nodded slowly. "Very well. I will permit this. So long as you take full responsibility."

She swallowed hard. "Yes, High Priestess," she squeaked out, and departed quickly.

Ayano turned to the High Priestess. "You know my feelings about this."

"I do. But much as it grates, learning to survive in the city is likely the best use of their time until their wilderness survival training can begin, and Sister Ayami hasn't the time to teach them these things. And so far, has their faith in our Lord Father wavered, or their judgement proved faulty?"

Ayano considered that. "No," she reluctantly conceded.

.oO()Oo.

After Kuri had recovered from the interview, with the aid of a very dumb but very funny no-budget comedy and a lot of reassurance from Yazu and Sulka, the three spent a much-needed night in very close contact, cuddled together in the apartment's larger bed while they planned out what they'd do next to help the sisters learn how to deal with the regular world.


	21. Feast of the Northern Stars

The Daughters had engaged a in a truly bizarre contest this time. They weren't competing directly with the other team, only indirectly. One of the large arenas had been filled with snow and refrigerated, then the two teams had been told the goals: build a shelter, make fire, and get at least three meals' worth of food. The winner was the one who did it first.

Ari took the lead in this, directing the others in trying to build various very, very small structures, barely big enough to hold a single sister. Slabs of snow failed instantly, bricks worked for making walls but not ceilings. They tried cylinders, but the roof was still impossible. They sat in the cold, unutterably glad of their snow suits, and Ari had a sudden inspiration. They'd seen domed roofs, and she directed her sisters to cut and pack the snow into blocks, and started building them into a ring, then into a slightly in-leaning ring, then a smaller and a smaller, and about halfway up, the structure failed. Undaunted, she decided to modify her technique, and built a kind of domed spiral of snow, then cut a doorway just big enough to let one of them through. They slithered into the shelter, stood up carefully, and the dome collapsed. Undaunted, Ari directed them through a slightly different construction, and this time, it stayed up. After the sisters packed the cracks with more snow, they discovered the shelter was amazingly warm, and at the request of the camera crew they placed several small wireless cameras within their dome. On to the next task: fire. They slithered back out, and went to scout their opponents, who'd successfully built a shelter much like their own, and were now hunting a large animal they didn't recognize. It had large antlers, stood very tall, and looked pretty dangerous.

Aki quietly approached the other band. "Can we talk?" she asked the leader once the others noticed her; she kept her voice low. The other band's leader nodded. This was a classic "battle of the sexes" scenario, so the other were large men with yellow hair and large beards, dressed in leather and furs, with spears and knives. "We have a shelter, and since we don't how to start a fire in these conditions, we want to offer a deal: We'll kill and butcher the animal, and you'll make a fire. You can keep half the meat, and we'll light our fire from yours. We'll both get a win, and the audience gets a surprising twist. It's more entertaining than watching you make a fire and hunt the animal and leave us to starve and freeze."

They leader considered, then smiled wide. "I have an even better idea: you hunt the beast, bring it back to the new shelter we'll build, then we'll show you how to start a fire and we'll share the meat, and the joys of feast and singing."

Aki smiled back. "Thank you, that sounds wonderful!" and she returned to her sisters with the agreement.

The hunt was quick; they crept up on the creature, Ari flung a bolas to tangle its legs, Avi leapt upon it and snapped its neck, then they pulled out the stomach and bowels and carried back the rest, just as the men completed the large snow dome.

As the girls watched carefully, the men started to take the carcass apart, explaining for the sisters and the audience exactly what they were doing and why. At the end, they were all gathered inside the snow dome, with the animal's fat burning in a lamp made from its skull. The wick, made from the animal's long hairs, wasn't ideal, nor was the composition of the animal's fats, but it served well enough. A fine feast, songs and tales, and the participants nearly hit the roof when the narrator's voice for the first time was played within the arena.

"Ladies and gentlemen, beings of all worlds, our judges have debated, and reached a verdict. Since cooperation was not forbidden, the alliance stands, and the winner of the event is the Northern Stars!"

As the audience cheered, the girls looked to the men, whose leader said that they worked under the name Northern Lights. They nodded to that, and smiled, and joined them in a final song and final cup of snowmelt warmed near the skull lamp.


	22. Divers Temptations

Their mother interrogated them ruthlessly about the contest, demanding at every point that they think of something they could have done better or differently, until at last she reluctantly granted that they had indeed made the best choices they could, given their utter lack of relevant knowledge. But they'd need to take another extra service to make up for the midnight service they'd missed. They offered no dispute, and resolved to make it up with a morning service the next day. The few hours before the sunrise service, they spent in their wide shared bedding. After they went out to explore the city, Ayano and Rika spoke with the High Priestess.

"I'm worried about this new closeness of theirs," Ayano said. "It seems so wrong, so against our ways."

"I know," said their mother. "But never before have there been such children. Their closeness galls me, yet what can we do but endure it? They are mighty fighters, possibly because of this very closeness, hard as I find that to credit."

"The weak have no place with Aku," said Rika in her slow fashion. "But they are very strong. In body and in soul. I know, for I have fought them all, one at a time and as a group. There is nothing weak about them that I have seen. Danger to the Waves might make them hesitate, but I have heard from Ayami and others many tales of the Samurai, and for all the evil he does, that is one evil he does not commit: he does not threaten those who do not threaten him or serve our Lord."

The others considered her words. "We need not consider the Waves a point of weakness. If what Rika says is so, the Samurai will not think to use them against the Blessèd Daughters, and no lesser person would dare their retribution," the High Priestess finally said.

Though an outsider could never have told it, Ayano's frustration was clear to the High Priestess, and she entirely sympathized. The greater world was filled with temptations to sloth and weakness, and even with the Waves to guide them (surely Aku-sent), she feared greatly that the children would fall at least a little to them.

.oO()Oo.

At that very moment, the girls were facing temptations, spread out across the downtown. Aki had just discovered a truly amazing new place, filled with screens and lights and stranger things; across the city, Ari stood in awe at the entrance to a truly vast learning temple; Ashi for the first time had stopped to actually examine the strange pictures outside what she gathered to be be some sort of entertainment centre. Avi was at the gym, but she'd opted for a random scenario, and been taken entirely aback by the result; Adi stood before something she thought was a small shrine, though to whom she was unsure; Ami had found herself in a truly peculiar situation with two young people, and wasn't quite sure how; and Aji was caught up in something she had no idea how to deal with.

.oO()Oo.

Aki stepped into the noisy, dimly lit space, and slowly walked the irregular paths made by the beeping, glowing machines, her face the only part of her readily visible in the strange, multi-layered area. The images on the screens were odd, some understandable, as with the shambling creatures the players were pretending to shoot with pretend guns (pretending… still such a strange idea), others less so, as with the little yellow circles being moved over yellow dots. She found herself drawn to the machines that more resembled other objects, such as the two-wheeled vehicles.

At one end of the row of pretend vehicles, Aki watched a new player put small discs into one of the machines, and turned to a boy beside her, a gangly youth in ill-fitting clothes of grey and green. "Excuse me," she said.

He looked her over with an odd, twisted expression she couldn't identify but didn't like. "Oh, no need to excuse you, hot stuff. How can Jen-ro help yah?" he drawled in a curiously deep voice that somehow sounded fake.

She decided to ignore most of that, having no idea how to react to it. "I want to know how to get those discs," she said, carefully keeping her tone neutral. Battles, services, contests, dealing with the Waves, these were things she understood, but broader social interactions were still something of a mystery at best.

He smiled wide, too wide, baring too much of his teeth for her comfort. "You need tokens, li'l bit? No prob, I got plenny," and he rummaged in his pants. "Here y'are," he said as he held out a palmful of the discs.

She looked at this, reluctant to accept, though not sure why. "No. I want to know how to get them," she said firmly.

His grin faded, and he stuffed the discs back in his pants. "Figger it out!" he snapped, clearly furious. "You stuck-up little rubber slut," he added as he stalked off, absolutely radiating hostility.

Another youth, similar in appearance to the first, touched her shoulder lightly, and she spun away from him, reflexes verging on precognition and movement close to teleporting. He raised his hands. "Relax, I'd just like to show you where to get the tokens." She followed him to a small machine. "There's a couple on each level. Most games are one or two tokens, the fancy ones are four."

Aki nodded. "Thank you," and he departed with a nod. After consideration, Aki chose to purchase twelve tokens. It would be enough to start on, and that odd combat simulator looked interesting.

It wasn't. Yes, it responded to her movements. Yes, it was diverting watching her on-screen self mirror her motions. But it was so, so slow! Trying to keep down to speeds it could handle was like fighting in water, but without the mobility. She walked through the many virtual opponents, then turned to see the crowd that had gathered, starting at her impossible moves. She bowed to them. "Are there more responsive games here?"

.oO()Oo.

Ari walked slowly through the vast temple, the scent of paper filling her nose and easing her heart. Naturally, she first sought the books telling of Aku and his rule, finally settling in before a low table with a dozen tomes. Not long after, she departed, sick at heart.

.oO()Oo.

Ashi took long, careful looks at the strange images. It was easy enough to make out the subjects, but they were weirdly flat and distorted in a way she couldn't understand. Impelled by her insatiable curiosity, she paid the fee demanded and entered the dim entryway, then found a seat beyond the second set of doors, vanishing into the darkness without even realizing it.

She'd arrived at the perfect time, the curtain opening on a group of men in red and gold. "We ride, men who are happy and free!" they sang, and the girl was entranced. Amazing, how different a stage show was from television or Temple plays, and she watched act after act. And as she watched, an idea began to grow.

.oO()Oo.

Avi stood on a small rock in a seemingly endless sky, her short hair ruffled by ever-shifting winds as other rocks wheeled about hers. The task was simple enough: Touch the people on other rocks without being touched. But the wind and the relative motion of the rocks made it more difficult than it seemed, leaping from rock to rock, and more than once, only speed beyond speed kept her from being tagged. Yet in the end, it was not she who won, but a being, a man she thought, with large flaps of skin between arms and torso. He was simply more maneuverable than she was in the bizarre environment. And deep inside, a new feeling began to grow.

.oO()Oo.

Adi stood before a strange, large metal wall with a vast array of holes in it. Through many of the holes, there were odd objects, locks she seemed to recall. She started to examine them, one by one. Large and small, different metals, different colours and materials, all with names on them. Strange. Were they offerings of some sort? Not to Aku, He required burned offerings. Some imaginary deity, or perhaps the petitioners were ignorant of the proper rites and offerings? That seemed likely, since even Ayami knew of only one copy of the Book of Aku. How sad, that no others knew the truth of His love and His Law. Once the Last Battle was done, they'd have to do something about that.

.oO()Oo.

The young man and woman were very good-looking, Ami noticed as they walked up to her while she stood on a street corner, facing away from traffic. "Hey, gorgeous," the man said. "My lady and I couldn't help noticing you, and we'd like to invite you to join us in a little fun," and he gestured to the whimsically painted many-floored structure she'd been examining.

Ami wasn't sure what sort of fun was to be had in the building, but wanted to find out, so she nodded. "Please," she said, and the couple led her inside. The lobby was well-lit and colourful, and her companions seemed to be known to the staff. She found herself swept along down a light blue corridor and through a dark blue door. Her eyes widened in delight, it was like a tiny Temple, there was even an idol and an altar! Torches, walls and ceilings of rock, it was like coming home! "It's wonderful!" she exclaimed. "But… there are no Sons of Aku. Should he… never mind, you must be of another faith. Please," she said to the woman, "will you lead the service?"

The couple looked to each other and grinned. This girl was totally into it, she'd be so much fun. Priestess, assistant and sacrifice instead of their usual priest and sacrifice would be a neat twist, and the woman nodded. "Certainly," she said. "But first," and she and her fellow undressed. "This is how we dress for services."

Ami shook her head. "I cannot. I am one with the darkness, and not apart from it." That earned a puzzled look, but the woman shrugged and began the simple service. It was very unlike the ones she'd known, but it was easy enough to follow. Then they stood, and the woman gestured to the altar, asking her to lie down on it. She touched the surface, and found it soft. "Why would I do that?"

The woman suppressed a laugh. "So we can sacrifice you, of course!"

The strange intonation puzzled Ami but did not distract her. Her skin and guts turned cold, and her face hard. "Blasphemers! Heretics!" she yelled as she reduced the pair to groaning heaps with carefully controlled strikes to organs and nerve clusters, then went on to wreck the false temple, her anger growing by the moment as she destroyed the papier-mâché idol, the plywood altar, the foam rocks, then hissed at her would-be playmates, "Do not return," before storming out of the room and down the corridor. "Your false temple is destroyed," she said to the receptionist. "Do not rebuild it."

.oO()Oo.

Aji had no clear notion of how she'd managed to get herself into this bizarre situation, or what to do about it. The pounding beat and flashing, pulsing lights made her head ache, and the actions of the many others weren't really anything she knew. A dance, she could have joined, but this…she didn't know what it was with the men bouncing in place and waving their arms, the women swaying their heads, caressing their midriffs, and sometimes sweeping their hair back or forward, but it was nothing she knew. So she did her best to find a wall, weaving almost at random through the crowd, both sexes dressed in ways to make her darksuit seem nearly as concealing as the normal Temple robes. Yet she persisted, with the occasional collision and subsequent apology, until at last she found a wall, and began to edge along it. There had to be a door and that was she wanted more than anything at that point.

The door proved elusive; she came first to a table laden with food, and large containers of drinks, sheathed in ice. She filled a paper cup, repressing the desire to snarl at the wastefulness it represented, then tasted the contents. Alcoholic, but not excessively so, a bit less than wine, she judged. One small cup, she knew, would do nothing to dull her fighting skill, or to cloud her mind. And it eased her thirst. And were those… brownies! She helped herself to one, savouring the sweet, rich taste in small bites.

Two young men spotted the latex-coated lovely, and grinned. One cup of vodka tea, a hash brownie, and she was visibly wobbly. The pair approached her, smiling in what they thought an ingratiating manner. "Hey," one of them said over the pounding music. "Want to go somewhere quiet?" The girl nodded sharply, and they led her up a curved flight of stairs, and through a heavy door into a dimly lit room, one with long couches and a platform that looked liked a large, velvet covered mattress.

Once out of the main room, Aji steadied and looked around; the dim red lighting and black surfaces were wonderfully homey, but the furnishings seemed terribly overdone by contrast. The men were looking at her oddly, and she wondered if they planned to waste her. She hadn't entirely understood Sulka's explanation, but she'd managed to grasp that it involved being touched in ways that weren't injurious but still very unpleasant. "Thank you," she said once her ears stopped ringing. "What's this room for?"

They grinned to each other then her. "Well, right now it's a place for us to peel that latex off you and…" She put their heads together with a bang and stalked out while they were still reeling, hurried down the stairs, and edged along the wall until she found the exit and managed to make her way back to street level.

.oO()Oo.

It was late afternoon by the time the girls returned to the Temple, barely before sunset service, and though the prayers helped, Ari was still deeply troubled; most could not have told, but to the others her heartsick look was clear as writing. "Something troubles you," the High Priestess said.

Ari conceded that. "In the learning temple, I read histories, thinking to learn more about our Lord Father. They… High Priestess, they all show Aku as a horrible tyrant and despot!"

The High Priestess nodded to that. "That does not surprise me. Outside of our faith, most see only Aku's strict laws and harsh punishments; they do not see the great love that lies behind them." The sisters nodded to that. All the more reason to keep their faith private, at least until after the Last Battle.

"I went to a place with entertainments very different from our songs and dances," Ashi said, "And I had an inspiration. We will likely need to travel extensively to find the Samurai, and travel is costly. And we are simply too distinctive to hide from him, especially with our reputation from the Dome. So my thought is that we seven could travel as a troupe of entertainers, make it known to all we meet that we seek the Samurai. We can hide our true purpose behind the masks of simple entertainers and martial artists, show our skills openly, and when the time is right, strike with surprise."

The High Priestess considered her daughter's words, then looked to Sister Ayami. "Is this a sound thought?"

Ayami considered the question. "Yes. Life on the road is hard, but no harder than life in our prior temple. They can earn enough to live on, and no assassin would ever actively invite the Samurai to attend a performance, or publish an itinerary. And summer is the best time to be an entertainer on tour, so they'll still be able to learn the basics of wilderness survival. We're very close to Night's Ebb, and that's the time to start that training."

Akane smiled at that. "I get the lessons too?" she asked, almost pleaded, and hugged her mother's arm at the confirmation. Then the sunset service, and after the lay Sisters departed, the rest fell to planning out acts.


End file.
